[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 34 (Thursday, March 23, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E407]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              WORLD TB DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CONSTANCE A. MORELLA

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 23, 2000

  Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Speaker, this Friday is World TB Day, and it 
reminds us that we are still not safe from this devastating disease. 
Although we have long known a treatment for TB, the sad truth is that 
this year, it will kill more people than any other year in history.
  TB is the biggest infectious killer of young women in the world. In 
fact, TB kills more women than any single cause of maternal mortality--
more than childbirth or AIDS.
  In the developing world, tuberculosis also destroys girls' and 
women's futures. TB tends to attack its victims in their most 
productive years, often killing or sickening the primary breadwinner of 
a family. In order to pay for medical costs and generate income, 
families frequently take their young girls out of school and put them 
to work. TB often means the loss of educational opportunity for girls 
of poor families.
  In some parts of the world there is a great stigma attached to 
contracting TB. This leads to increased isolation, abandonment and 
divorce of women. According to WHO, recent studies on India found that 
100,000 women are rejected by their families because of TB every year. 
In Nepal, there are numerous stories of young widows with no income and 
no prospects for another marriage turning to prostitution in order to 
support their families.
  Currently an estimated one third of the world's population including 
some 10-15 million people in the United States are infected with the TB 
bacteria. Because TB is an infectious disease which can be transmitted 
simply by breathing in TB bacteria, there is no way to stop TB at 
national borders. The only way to eliminate TB here in the U.S. is to 
control it abroad.
  It is crucial that we act immediately to control the spread of TB 
worldwide. There is only a small window of opportunity available to us 
to do so. If we fail to act now, resistant strains of TB will continue 
to develop which will be incredibly costly and possibly even impossible 
to treat. The Foreign Operations SC has led in the effort to make TB 
control a global priority for the U.S. Now is the time to ratchet up 
that effort.
  Yesterday, my colleague, Sherrod Brown and I introduced H.R. 4057, 
the Stop TB Now Act which calls for a U.S. investment of $100 million 
in international TB control in fiscal year 2001. An investment of $100 
million would jump start effective TB control programs in those 
countries with the highest TB rates. If we do not invest in 
international TB control now when we have the means to cost-effectively 
control this disease around the globe, we may lose that opportunity 
altogether, and see a surge of MDR-TB that becomes a nearly 
uncontrollable plague. I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this important 
legislation.

                          ____________________