AIDS quilts on display

Portions of the AIDS Memorial Quilt are on display on the National Mall in Washington D.C. for the AIDS 2012 conference .

Relatives of those who have lost loved ones to AIDS and the conference attendees visited the massive quilt.

The quilt initially contained 2,000 panels, each one dedicated to a person who died from AIDS.

Now, the quilt is comprised of 48,000 panels representing 93,000 people who have perished from the AIDS virus.

Event organizers say the quilt was originally meant to bring public consciousness and visibility to an epidemic that was largely striking populations of gay men while receiving limited national attention.