Today, AIDS patients can live long and healthy lives - according to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, people who start antiretroviral therapy (ART) early have a nearly 80-year life expectancy - but Mercury was diagnosed at a time when very few treatments existed, knowing his condition was terminal for years before his death.
Mercury was far from the first celebrity to tragically die of AIDS - however, his public acknowledgment of the disease was crucial at a time when governments had still done very little to address the epidemic. Although public rumors about the state of his health increased when he stepped out of public life in 1989, Mercury and his bandmates vehemently denied rumors that the star had AIDS until the day before he died, when he released a statement regarding his illness (via People). Rather than be known for his disease, Mercury wanted to "make as much music as humanly possible" with his remaining time, according to guitarist Brian May in an interview with The Telegraph.