(NEW YORK) -- Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop has died at age 96.
 
As surgeon general during the Reagan Administration, he took on the major health crises of the day.

In 1986, he issued a landmark report on AIDS. At a time when victims of the disease were stigmatized and shunned, Koop urged education and compassion.
 
"We are fighting a disease, and not people," he said at the time.

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