I just found out that on the National AIDS Memorial website there is a complete digitised copy of the AIDS Quilt. It has over 50,000 panels and memoraseis over 110,000 individuals who passed away due to HIV/AIDS. It is still being added to today. Each panel is 3ft by 6ft - roughly the same size as a grave - and is created by loved ones. The panels vary in complexity but through each can be felt the profound feeling of loss and love felt for the individual.
I’ve known about the AIDS crisis for a long time but this was my first time not only looking through so much of the quilt at once but also really being able to conceptualise the scale of the AIDS crisis. What really struck me was how young so many of these individuals were. I truly cannot put into words how deeply this has affected me. Between 1981-1990 there were over 100,000 deaths attributed to AIDS. Today the death toll is estimated at over 44 million with approximately 630,000 of those deaths being in 2024 alone. (This data is from the WHO HIV and AIDS fact/data sheet that I’ve linked at the bottom of the post)
For reference thats on average nearly 1 million people per year and more than 2,500 people per day.
I’m so grateful to all of the volunteers who manage, update, and maintain such an important part of queer history. The fact that I as a queer person from Australia am able to look through this and learn about the history of my community is profound.
I have included a link to the National AIDS Memorial website as well as a link to the WHO’s fact sheet on HIV and AIDS. If you have time I would highly recommend looking through at least some of the panels.
The National AIDS Memorial, through a partnership with the AIDS Quilt Touch team, presents all 48,000 panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in a
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hiv-aids
WHO fact sheet on HIV and AIDS with key facts and information on signs and symptoms, transmission, risk factors, testing and counselling, pr