NEW YORK—In honor of World AIDS Day, the international occasion for raising awareness about the disease that has claimed more than 39 million lives worldwide, the city’s AIDS advocates gathered at the Apollo Theater in Harlem on Monday to celebrate their achievements in combating the disease and discuss their work ahead to fully end the epidemic.
The crowd was joined by Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council members who support an initiative to reduce the number of people living with HIV in New York State.
Although New York City remains one of the places in the nation with the highest rates of HIV infection (HIV being the virus that causes AIDS), the city health department’s newly released data on Monday showed that the number of new diagnoses in 2013 has declined to 2,832, an over 40 percent decrease compared to a decade ago.
Currently, more than 117,000 people in New York City are living with HIV or AIDS, and about 100,000 have died from the disease.
