San Francisco marked the 35th anniversary of World AIDS Day Friday with a moment of somber reflection and hope for a brighter future.
Among those who gathered at the Memorial Grove to mark the moment was Olympic gold medalist and best-selling author Greg Louganis, who shared his experience living with the virus.
"I didn’t expect to be here. I didn’t expect to see 30," he said. "I was 28 when I was diagnosed, and generally at that time two years was your life expectancy after diagnosis."
Now at 63 years old, he said while there have been huge strides in the fight, there is still a lot of work to do.
"A lot has changed as far as treatment and care, awareness, but we have to do a better job at awareness and education in parts of the world that possibly don’t have it," he said.
John Cunningham, CEO of the National AIDS Memorial, said while San Francisco and the Bay Area have long been the leaders in care and progress, there are still other places struggling in the fight to overcome the virus.
"In the southern U.S., the virus continues and the case loads continue to increase for the same reasons they did in the early days," he said.
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Meanwhile, San Francisco and other major cities continue to march toward the goal of zero new infections by 2025.
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