[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2453 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2453

To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to improve injection safety 
 in immunization and other disease control programs administered under 
                               that Act.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 10, 2001

   Mr. Upton (for himself, Mr. Moran of Virginia, Mr. Greenwood, Mr. 
     Roemer, Mr. Brown of Ohio, Mrs. Roukema, and Mr. Rohrabacher) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                        International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to improve injection safety 
 in immunization and other disease control programs administered under 
                               that Act.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Improving Global Health Through Safe 
Injections Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) injections are among the most frequently used medical 
        procedures, with an estimated 12 billion injections 
        administered each year world-wide;
            (2) while injections have been used effectively for many 
        years for preventive and curative health care, unsafe 
        injections pose a serious risk to public health in many parts 
        of the world, particularly in developing countries where up to 
        50 percent of injections are administered with used syringes 
        and needles;
            (3) unsafe injection practices have been linked to the 
        transmission of many pathogens between patients, including the 
        hepatitis viruses, HIV, the Ebola virus, dengue fever virus, 
        and the malaria parasite;
            (4) officials with the World Health Organization and the 
        Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have estimated that 
        of the 12 billion injections given globally each year, 9 
        billion are not necessary;
            (5) studies estimate that in Southeast Asia and in Africa 
        nearly 80 percent of injections are given with nonsterilized 
        equipment, and in Eastern Europe nearly 70 percent are given 
        with nonsterilized equipment;
            (6) data from the Safe Injection Global Network, an 
        organization affiliated with the World Health Organization, 
        indicate that unsafe injection practices in developing 
        countries cause 8 to 16 million hepatitis B infections, 2.2 to 
        4.5 million hepatitis C infections, and 75,000 to 150,000 HIV 
        infections annually;
            (7) unsafe injection practices are particularly associated 
        with the transmission of hepatitis B, the fifth leading cause 
        of death from infectious diseases in the world, and hepatitis 
        C, which, taken together, account for 75 percent of all cases 
        of chronic liver disease world-wide;
            (8) the enormous hepatitis C epidemic now sweeping across 
        Egypt has been traced to the reuse of syringes in that nation's 
        schistosomiasis campaign;
            (9) the original 1976 Ebola epidemic in Yambuku, Zaire, was 
        traced to the reuse of three syringes on some 300 to 500 
        patients visiting a hospital there; and
            (10) studies have documented that the spread of HIV 
        infection in Russian infants and their mothers in the 1980s was 
        due to the reuse of syringes in pediatric wards.

SEC. 3. AMENDMENT.

    Section 104(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 
2151b(c)) is amended by inserting after paragraph (7) the following new 
paragraph:
    ``(8) In carrying out immunization programs and other programs for 
the prevention, treatment, and control of infectious diseases, 
including tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS, polio, and malaria, the 
Administrator of the United States Agency for International 
Development, in coordination with the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, national and local 
governments, and other organizations, such as the World Health 
Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund, shall develop and 
implement effective strategies to improve injection safety, including 
eliminating unnecessary injections, promoting the availability and use 
of single-use auto-disable needles and syringes and other safe 
injection technologies, strengthening the procedures for proper needle 
and syringe disposal, and improving the education and information 
provided to the public and to health professionals.''.

SEC. 4. REPORTING REQUIREMENT.

    The Administrator of the United States Agency for International 
Development shall transmit 2 reports to the Congress on the 
implementation of paragraph (8) of section 104(c) of the Foreign 
Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 5151b(c)), as added by section 3 of 
this Act. The first such report shall be transmitted not later than 
March 31, 2002, and the final report shall be transmitted not later 
than March 31, 2003.
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