The San Francisco Community Remembers AIDS Victims – NBC Bay Area

It has been 40 years since AIDS spread.

Although infection and mortality have fallen dramatically over the last decade, hundreds of thousands of people worldwide still die from AIDS-related diseases each year.

From the beginning, San Francisco was at the center of the battle to end the AIDS epidemic.

On Saturday, the community remembered the victims and encouraged others to participate in the fight at the event.

It was a moving compliment to the millions of people killed by AIDS in the last 40 years. The group also announced an AIDS memorial quilt bearing the names of victims who died of illness.

It has been 40 years since the federal government first recognized the AIDS epidemic on June 5. Joe Rosato Jr. of the NBC Bay Area told survivors how much progress they have made in understanding and fighting the disease.

Speaker of the United States House Nancy Pelosi and Mayor of San Francisco London Breed were some of the speakers at the event on Saturday.

High-ranking officials reading the victims’ names gather at the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park to further represent the 54-ton tapestry of the quilt.

“From that beginning, not only the fight against AIDS, but a great movement to change the way we look at the world towards gay people has begun,” said Cleve Jones, co-founder of the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

AIDS is still a battle. There are nearly 700,000 AIDS-related deaths worldwide each year, compared to more than 13,000 in the United States.

The United States is one of many countries that have signed the United Nations to achieve its goals of zero AIDS infection and zero deaths by 2030.

“We haven’t got there yet, but it will happen,” Pelosi said.

Bleed is committed to the city of San Francisco achieving its goals.

“No new infections, no new deaths, no prejudice against HIV or AIDS patients,” she said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Congressman Barbara Lee has vowed to continue fighting to stop the devastating damage in urban areas, where the prevalence of colored races is said to be very high.

“We’ve seen up close how this illness affects our community, our neighbors, our friends and family,” she said.

Long-term survivors also encourage others to take tests and trust current life-saving medications.

“I’ve survived AIDS for 35 years and now I’m witnessing an elderly person,” said Ronnie Payne, a member of the AIDS Memorial Committee.

Meanwhile, the Castro area is still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic that has swept the globe.

One of the major infectious disease doctors in the COVID-19 pandemic acknowledges the significant steps taken last year against the casualties made by the LGBTQ community during the AIDS epidemic.

Before a powerful politician dedicates a wreath to the AIDS monument in San Francisco early in the day. Even before the first AIDS quilt was on display, and even before actor Rock Hudson and teenage Ryan White died of AIDS, San Francisco General Hospital had ward 86.

“I am the medical director of a large HIV clinic at San Francisco General Hospital. This clinic is the oldest HIV clinic in the country,” said Monica, a UCSF infectious disease expert and medical director at SFGH Ward 86.・ Dr. Gandhi said.

Gandhi has become one of the most candid doctors in the country on the coronavirus pandemic.

She said many of the COVID-19 responses, including the emergency use authorization for the coronavirus vaccine, date back to the AIDS epidemic.

“The FDA could even go through the process in parallel only through HIV activities and community advocacy, which has now been changed to the EUA,” Gandhi added.

Over the last 40 years, more than 34 million people have died from AIDS complications.

The development of life-saving therapies for HIV and AIDS has taken years.

The same technology currently used in the coronavirus vaccine is being tested for HIV.

“We have been using MRNA technology since 2011, but it was only after COVID that MRNA technology was applied to HIV vaccines,” Gandhi said.