HIV has killed millions since the epidemic first began in the 1980s, according to the World Health Organization. 

Thirty-four years ago, Ernest Wilson was told he'd be one of them. 

What You Need To Know

  • HIV has killed millions since the start of the epidemic in the 1980s, according to the World Health Organization

  • Ernest Wilson was 27 years old and on his way to the Navy when he learned he was positive for HIV

  • Wilson was told he had six months to live, but has lived with the disease for 34 years

  • He now mentors individuals in the homeless community, some also living with HIV

“I went to the bus station in Buffalo and just sat there and cried all day because he said I had six months to a year to live,” he said.

Wilson said he was 27 years old at the time, and on his way to serve in the Navy to help support his mother. 

“I saw NPs coming in,” he said. “I said, ‘Oh, did I do something? Am I going to go to jail?’ But it was just the fact that they were there to prevent myself from hurting myself. And that's when the doctor came in saying that ‘Mr. Wilson can’t let you into the Navy. You have HIV.’”

It was 1984 and Wilson was already mourning the loss of his sister who said she had cancer. However, his family later learned she had tested positive for HIV. Wilson said his sister was among the many that feared sharing the news with her loved ones. 

“She was 59, 60 years old,” Wilson said. “She had gotten it from her husband, who didn't say anything to her, you know? People still kind of hide it.” 

At the time, a diagnosis was considered a death sentence. 

"Here I am now, 34 years later, still doing. Apparently, the man upstairs had a different plan for me, you know. So I tried to make the best of it, you know?” Wilson said, smiling.

However, there were millions of others that weren't so lucky. Dr. Bill Valenti was starting his career in the medical field as the HIV epidemic began. Valenti had called a colleague at UCLA, where the disease was first discovered, to help get a better understanding of what was expected to make its way across the country. 

"He said he thought this was some sort of virus that was destroying immune systems,” Valenti said. “And so we speculated a little about, since it was in gay men, that it might be sexually transmitted and we hadn’t really seen that here yet." 

The doctor's curiosity quickly turned into a specialty. But after decades of education, he said he only has one word for how the disease has truly reformed to what it is today. 

"There’s a generation of people lost in the sacrifices that they made and their families and others to get us to this point,” Valenti said. “The one word that’s gotten us to this point -- science."

Wilson's journey inspired him to become a mentor for the homeless, some of who also have tested positive for HIV. 

“There's a lot of people who have died to get where we are now,” Wilson explained, "My thing is to try to get that younger generation to carry that torch on.” 

Wilson has gained inspiration from his opportunity to live and hopes he can share his bravery with the next generation who test positive. 

“I didn’t think I was going to be here,” he said. “Look, 34 years later, I’m still here.”