[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 8 (Thursday, February 3, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S330-S331]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. MOYNIHAN (for himself and Mr. Feingold):
  S. 2032. A bill to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to 
address the issue of mother-to-child transmission of human 
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Africa, Asia, and Latin America; to the 
Committee on Foreign Relations.


               mother-to-child hiv prevention act of 2000

  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, today I rise to introduce, along with my 
distinguished colleague from Wisconsin, Mr. Feingold, the Mother-to-
child HIV Prevention Act, a bill that seeks to address mother-to-child 
transmission of HIV in developing regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin 
America.

[[Page S331]]

  According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), 
nearly 4.5 million children below the age of 15 years have been 
infected with HIV since the AIDS epidemic began. More than 3 million 
have already died of AIDS. Children are becoming infected at the rate 
of nearly one child every minute, and the overwhelming majority of 
these children acquired the infection from their mothers.
  In July 1999, the National Institutes of Health released a report on 
the effectiveness of a drug called nevirapine (NVP) in preventing 
mother-to-child transmission of HIV. NVP is given just once to the 
mother during labor and once to the baby within three days after birth. 
It costs $4 per tablet. The discovery of this relatively simple and 
inexpensive drug regimen--along with others like it--has created an 
unprecedented opportunity for international cooperation in the fight 
against the vertical transmission of HIV.
  USAID is currently engaged in four of the eleven vertical 
transmission pilot projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. These 
studies will be completed within the year, at which point the 
intervention programs can undergo a significant increase in scale. But 
additional funding is needed.
  The cost-effectiveness of these programs is clear. New antiretroviral 
drug strategies can be a force for social change, providing the 
opportunity and impetus needed to address long-standing problems in the 
health care system and the profound stigma associated with HIV-
infection and the AIDS disease.
  Naturally, primary prevention strategies should remain the top 
priority in the fight against AIDS, which is why I am requesting these 
funds in addition to our current efforts. This legislation would give 
the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) an additional $25 
million every year--for the next five years--to address the growing 
international dilemma of child victims of the AIDS epidemic.
  Mr. President, this bill has the potential to improve the lives of 
hundreds of thousands of children whose lives are marred by this 
disease. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I urge 
its swift passage into law.
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