Whereas the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS) estimates that since the identification of AIDS in 1981, about
65,000,000 people have been infected with HIV, and more than 32,000,000 people
have died of AIDS worldwide;
Whereas in 2008, UNAIDS estimated that 33,400,000 people
were living with HIV around the world, over 2,000,000 people died of AIDS, and
another 2,700,000 people were newly infected;
Whereas 280,000 children under the age of 15 died from
AIDS in 2008, while 2,100,000 children were living with HIV, 90 percent of whom
reside in Sub-Saharan Africa;
Whereas each day over 1,000 children under the age of 15
become newly infected with HIV, and only 10 percent of pregnant women worldwide
receive services to prevent HIV transmission to their newborns;
Whereas new infection rates among women are increasing,
and now account for 15,700,000 infections and half of the adult population
living with HIV/AIDS;
Whereas developing countries continue to bear the brunt of
the AIDS pandemic with Sub-Saharan Africa serving as the home of 67 percent of
all adults and children living with HIV, 60 percent of whom are women and
girls;
Whereas people living with HIV/AIDS are frequently
susceptible to other opportunistic infections, and according to the World
Health Organization, in 2007 approximately 1,370,000 people living with HIV
were also estimated to be co-infected with tuberculosis;
Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) estimates that in the United States, at the end of 2006, 1,106,400 people
were living with HIV, and 21 percent did not know they were infected;
Whereas a total of 583,298 people have died of AIDS in the
United States from the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic through 2007;
Whereas each year 56,300 people become newly infected with
HIV in the United States, and on average, an individual is infected with HIV
every 9½ minutes;
Whereas at the end of 2006, African-Americans represented
46 percent of all people living with HIV in the United States, Whites
represented 35 percent, Hispanics represented 18 percent, Asian-Americans and
Pacific Islanders represented 1 percent, and American Indians and Alaska
Natives represented less than 1 percent;
Whereas men who have sex with men (MSM), particularly
young MSM of color, have represented an increasing share of new HIV infections
over the past decade and each year MSM account for 53 percent of all new
infections;
Whereas men account for roughly 75 percent of all people
living with HIV in the United States, and women represent 25 percent;
Whereas in the United States, African-American women are
18 times more likely to become newly infected with HIV than White women, and
Hispanic women are 5 times more likely to have AIDS than non-Hispanic White
women;
Whereas 5,259 young people aged 13 to 24 were newly
diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 2006, representing about 14 percent of all new
diagnoses in the United States during that year;
Whereas in order to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the
United States, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009 was
enacted into law on October 30, 2009, reauthorizing Federal HIV/AIDS care and
treatment programs for 4 years and making funding available to United States
metropolitan areas, States, and service providers to assist affected families
and persons living with HIV/AIDS with healthcare and support services;
Whereas to further focus attention on the HIV/AIDS
epidemic among minority communities in the United States, in 1998, Congress and
the Clinton Administration created the Minority AIDS Initiative to provide
funds to State and local institutions and organizations to best serve the
healthcare costs and support the needs of racial and ethnic minorities living
with HIV/AIDS;
Whereas Congress provided $1,400,000 for the Office of
National AIDS Policy (ONAP) within the White House in the FY2009 Omnibus
Appropriations Act in order to develop a National AIDS Strategy to better
coordinate and guide the Nation’s response to HIV/AIDS;
Whereas ONAP has since conducted a series of town halls
across the country to solicit feedback directly from communities impacted by
HIV/AIDS in order to provide a basis for developing a National AIDS
Strategy;
Whereas, on April 7, 2009, the CDC launched a new
communication campaign, Act Against AIDS
, to facilitate
awareness, public education, health literacy, health care provider marketing,
and highly targeted behavior change communication objectives in the fight
against HIV/AIDS;
Whereas to address the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, in 2000,
Congress passed the Global AIDS and Tuberculosis Relief Act, providing the
first contribution and the founding framework for what became the Global Fund
to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, which provides grants to developing
countries to combat the 3 diseases;
Whereas since the Global Fund was created in 2002, donors
have pledged more than $12,800,000,000 in funding, of which $4,400,000,000 has
been donated by the United States;
Whereas as of December 2009, the Global Fund has supported
treatment to over 2,500,000 people for HIV/AIDS, directly observed treatment to
6,000,000 people for tuberculosis, and over 104,000,000 insecticide
treated-bednets to fight malaria;
Whereas in order to further address the global HIV/AIDS
epidemic, in 2008, Congress reauthorized the President's Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States
Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization
Act, providing $48,000,000,000 over 5 years to combat the 3 diseases;
Whereas, between fiscal years 2009 and 2013, PEPFAR
programs aim to support care for 12,000,000 HIV-affected people, including
children orphaned by AIDS, support the prevention of 12,000,000 new HIV
infections; and help at least 3,000,000 people receive antiretroviral
treatment;
Whereas, as of September 30, 2008, PEPFAR had supported
the treatment of 2,100,000 people and supported the prevention of
mother-to-child HIV transmission during more than 16,000,000 pregnancies, and
had facilitated care for nearly 10,100,000 people, including more than
4,000,000 orphans and vulnerable children;
Whereas, between 2004 and 2009, Congress provided
approximately $24,752,000,000 to combat global HIV/AIDS through PEPFAR and the
Global Fund;
Whereas as a result of these and other efforts, the rate
of new HIV infections has declined by 17 percent since 2001 and the number of
AIDS-related deaths has declined by 10 percent over the last 5 years, due in
part to the expansion of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs;
Whereas since the availability of effective HIV/AIDS
treatments in 1996 and the increasing availability of treatments to prevent
mother to child transmission of HIV since 2001, approximately 2,900,000 lives
have been saved and approximately 200,000 new infections among children have
been prevented;
Whereas in 2001, representatives and heads of state of 189
countries, including the United States, convened at the first-ever Special
Session of the United Nations General Assembly on HIV/AIDS and unanimously
adopted the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS;
Whereas the United Nations Declaration of Commitment
outlines prevention, treatment, and funding methods for achieving the
Millennium Development Goal of halting and beginning to reverse the spread of
HIV/AIDS by 2015;
Whereas in 2006, the United Nations General Assembly
convened a High Level Meeting on AIDS, pledging to move toward the goal of
universal access to comprehensive prevention programs, treatment, care, and
support by 2010;
Whereas in 2008, the United Nations General Assembly
convened a second High Level Meeting on AIDS to review progress towards
achieving the goal of universal access and the Declaration of Commitment on
HIV/AIDS;
Whereas the concept of World AIDS Day originated at the
1988 World Summit of Ministers of Health on Programmes for AIDS Prevention and
was established to focus attention on the HIV/AIDS pandemic;
Whereas December 1 is now recognized as World AIDS Day and
has been taken up by governments, international organizations, and charities
around the world; and
Whereas the theme of World AIDS Day 2009 is “Universal
Access and Human Rights” and is intended to focus attention on the goal of
providing universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care, and support
programs and the fundamental need to support and protect human rights for all
people, particularly vulnerable and marginalized populations, in order to
achieve this goal: Now, therefore, be it
That Congress—
(1)supports the goals and ideals of World AIDS
Day and recognizes the 21st anniversary of observing this day;
(2)commends the
President, State, and local governments, including their public health
agencies, for recognizing this day, for publicizing its importance among their
communities, and for encouraging individuals to undergo testing for HIV;
(3)commends national,
State, and local media organizations for carrying messages in support of World
AIDS Day;
(4)supports continued
funding for prevention, care, treatment services, and research programs for
persons living with HIV/AIDS in the United States including, through the Ryan
White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act, the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health,
the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Office of
Minority Health, and the Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services;
(5)supports the
development of a national AIDS strategy with clear goals and objectives to
reduce new HIV infections, especially among African-Americans, men who have sex
with men, and other vulnerable communities;
(6)supports continued
funding for the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief and the Global Fund
to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria to provide prevention, care, and
treatment to combat HIV/AIDS in developing countries;
(7)supports the goal
of providing universal access to comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment,
care, and support programs;
(8)supports the goal
of protecting human rights for all people, including vulnerable and
marginalized populations such as men who have sex with men, injecting drug
users, and sex workers; and
(9)supports efforts
to address the factors that make populations vulnerable to HIV/AIDS by
decreasing poverty and hunger, expanding educational opportunities for
children, and empowering women.