Nearly 6,000 people on Long Island are living with HIV/AIDS, more than many whole states across the nation.

Nassau and Suffolk counties had a 20% spike in HIV cases in just a year, according to a local nonprofit.

Experts say the pandemic and inability to get services or to a doctor are to blame.

The nonprofit "Options For Community Living" serves HIV-positive clients and connects them with housing, education and financial help

"We've come so very far, we have to remember that all those lives lost in the 80s and 90s were not in vain, that those people, that the current people can stand on their shoulders," says CEO of Options for Community Living Yolanda Robano-Gross. "And that's how we get to where we are now, and this next generation will help the next generation until the endemic has ended."

For more information on the Long Island nonprofit, click here.