AIDS and dying

Here's an interesting recap of the AIDS epidemic after 25 years. "In the United States, an estimated 1.1 million people are infected with HIV and more than half a million Americans have died of AIDS. The bad news is that the rate of HIV infection remains steady at about 40,000 per year and the good news is that number Americans dying from AIDS has dropped for 52,000 in 1995 to 15,800 in 2004." How does this compare with other "epidemics"? According to the Centers for Disease Control statistics, AIDS would be probably be 20th or so as a leading cause of death in the US. (see the top ten causes of death in the United States here). Even at its height, it would have been about 8th or 9th. That's bad, but diabetes kills 74,000 people a year (#6 on the chart), and 1.4 million new cases are diagnosed a year, adding to the estimated 21 million people who already have it. You never hear about the diabetes epidemic. Why is that? Where is the diabetes quilt? Is it because AIDS is much more politically loaded (the "gay disease")? AIDS seems more random? Is uncurable? Or is it that AIDS has a larger and more active advocacy group?