Palm Beach County Community Services Department’s Ryan White Program is hosting a free event, “Empowering Resilience,” on June 1, from 6 to 8 p.m., in recognition of HIV Long-Term Survivor Awareness Day.
The event will be held at the Cox Science Center and Aquarium, 4801 Dreher Trail N, West Palm Beach, 33405.
Special guest, Jesse Milan, Jr., president and CEO of AIDS United, will be the featured speaker.
June 5 is HIV long-term Survivors Awareness Day that celebrates and honors long-term survivors of the epidemic and raises awareness of their needs, issues and journeys.
The selection of the June 5 date for this annual observance coincides with the anniversary of the first official report of what became known as the AIDS epidemic.
On June 5, 1981, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on about five cases of rare pneumonia affecting young gay men living in New York and California.
It was the beginning of what would later be identified as HIV/AIDS. HIV doesn’t discriminate, and it impacts people of all ages, races, sexual orientations and socio-economic backgrounds.
Currently, about 26% of all the 1.5 million people living with HIV in the U.S. became positive before 1996, meaning they are long-term survivors.
