110 HCON 8 IH: Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States Postal Service should issue a commemorative postage stamp honoring victims of HIV/AIDS and recognizing the struggle to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS in the United States and throughout the world.
U.S. House of Representatives
2007-01-04
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Whereas in 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the first cases of a rare pneumonia, later diagnosed as AIDS-related;
Whereas in 1982, the CDC formally established the term acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and the first congressional hearings on AIDS were held;
Whereas the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was isolated in 1984 and later so named;
Whereas on December 1, 1988, World AIDS Day was first declared by the World Health Organization;
Whereas since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, approximately 1,500,000 people in the United States have become infected with the virus, including more than 500,000 who have died from it;
Whereas the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that since the beginning of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, approximately 65,000,000 people worldwide have become infected with the virus, including more than 25,000,000 who have died from it;
Whereas the CDC estimates that at the end of 2003, there were between 1,039,000 and 1,185,000 people in the United States living with HIV/AIDS, an increase from the estimated 850,000 to 950,000 people at the end of 2002;
Whereas UNAIDS estimates that worldwide at the end of 2006, women accounted for 48 percent of adults living with HIV/AIDS (up from 41 percent in 1997), and in sub-Saharan Africa, women represented 59 percent of all adults living with HIV/AIDS;
Whereas communities of color have been disproportionately affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic;
Whereas the CDC estimates that at the end of 2005, minorities represented over 65 percent of persons living with AIDS;
Whereas the CDC estimates that of the estimated 40,000 new HIV infections each year, nearly 70 percent occur among minorities;
Whereas the CDC estimates that in 2004, African Americans accounted for nearly 50 percent of all new diagnoses of HIV/AIDS;
Whereas the Minority AIDS Initiative was created in 1999 to enhance efforts to prevent the acquisition or transmission of HIV infections in racial and ethnic communities;
Whereas the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resource Emergency Act of 1990 was enacted to address the unmet health needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS by funding primary health care, capacity building, community outreach, and support services that enhance access to and retention in care;
Whereas the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief was established in 2003 to work with international, national, and local leaders to promote prevention, treatment, and care programs;
Whereas greater global attention and funding have led to several important initiatives from organizations such as the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS; The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM); the World Health Organization; and the World Bank; and
Whereas in 2005, the leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) agreed to work to develop and implement a package for HIV prevention, treatment, and care, with the goal of providing universal access to treatment and care by 2010: Now, therefore, be it
That it is the sense of Congress that—
(1)a commemorative postage stamp should be issued by the United States Postal Service honoring victims of HIV/AIDS and recognizing the struggle to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS in the United States and throughout the world; and
(2)the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee should recommend to the Postmaster General that such a stamp be issued.