New Yorkers commemorate World AIDS Day with reading of the names

An estimated 116,000 New Yorkers have died from AIDS-related illnesses.

“Maria Dolores Garcia and I remember her today and every day,” Ruth Garcia, whose sister died from AIDS in 1990, said. “When she learned of her diagnosis, it was too late for treatment and back then, anti-viral therapy wasn’t what it is today.”

“I know, had she been alive, she would be here. So, in memory of her, I’m here for her as well as for myself,” Garcia, who was also diagnosed with HIV in 2007, said.

Garcia joined dozens of activists at the New York City AIDS Memorial Monday where activists read names of New Yorkers who died from AIDS, commemorating World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.

“We continue to lose people. We continue to see people getting infected. HIV continues to spread. This is the awareness we try to bring into the community,” Garcia said.

Currently, 1.2 million people in the United States and 40-million people globally are living with HIV, which can lead to AIDS. Thanks to medical advances like PrEP, which can prevent HIV and AZT, which prevents HIV from turning into AIDS. But activists say it’s important to remember that AIDS is not over.

“There’s still so many thousands of New Yorkers living with HIV and there’s so many people who are at risk of HIV transmission which is preventable. We have tools now that were unthinkable to so many of these people. So many of these losses, these deaths, were preventable. We have those tools now but they’re not in everyone’s hands equitably,” said Seth Pollack of Housing Works, a non-profit that fights AIDS and homelessness.

Ruth knows, unlike her sister’s struggle, her life can go on and she has hope — speaking publicly about her diagnosis to help destigmatize AIDS and inspire others to take control of their health.

“It’s not a death sentence anymore. You’re able to live and have a productive, healthy life like me!” Garcia said.

World AIDS Day began on Dec. 1, 1988. It’s also the first-ever Global Health Day. More than 32 million people have died worldwide from AIDS-related illnesses.