[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 163 (Thursday, November 29, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H8631-H8632]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             WORLD AIDS DAY

  (Mrs. CLAYTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, I would like first to thank the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) for asking us to really speak out 
on this worldwide issue. In fact, we have an opportunity to speak out 
on this issue 2 days before what we call World AIDS Day. As this day 
approaches, we are faced with the grim statistics about the spread of 
HIV/AIDS. From the rural South in my area of North Carolina to South 
Africa, greater efforts have to be made to fight the spread of AIDS. We 
hear these statistics. They do not even prick our consciousness. We 
have got to find a way to make sure that these statistics do not become 
just sheer rhetoric.
  A recent story on the AP wire reports that the AIDS epidemic is 
spreading across eastern Europe, with HIV infection rates rising faster 
in the Soviet Union than anywhere else in the world. I would like to 
submit this article for the Record.
  There has been more than 75,000 new cases of HIV in Russia as 
compared to 56,000 cases last year. Here in the United States, HIV 
infections among U.S. women have increased significantly over the last 
decade, especially in communities of color.
  We must do more. We have an opportunity to do more. The United States 
must provide more resources for the global AIDS fund of the United 
Nations. We can do this by providing the resources and being a leader. 
We must develop long-term strategies to make sure that we rid the world 
of HIV infections.

                  Report: AIDS Sweeping Eastern Europe

                          (By Mara D. Bellaby)

       Moscow (AP).--The AIDS epidemic is sweeping across Eastern 
     Europe, with HIV infection rates rising faster within the 
     former Soviet Union than anywhere else in the world, 
     according to the latest U.N. report on AIDS, published 
     Wednesday.
       The combination of economic insecurity, high unemployment 
     and deteriorating health services in the region are behind 
     the steep rise, which shows no signs of abating, said U.N. 
     officials, in Moscow to launch the report.
       Worldwide, ``HIV/AIDS is unequivocally the most devastating 
     disease we have ever faced, and it will get worse before it 
     gets better,'' Peter Pilot, executive director of the Joint 
     U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS wrote in the report, which is 
     updated annually ahead of Worlds AIDS Day, held every Dec. 1.
       In Russia, more than 75,000 new cases of HIV infection were 
     reported by early November, compared to 56,000 new cases last 
     year.
       ``That works out to about 10,000 new cases every month,'' 
     said Gennady Onishchenko, Russia's first deputy health 
     minister. ``This is our reality. . . . It is a very serious 
     problem.''
       Ukraine has the highest HIV prevalence rate in the region, 
     with an estimated 1 percent of adults infected. In the small 
     Baltic nation of Estonia, 1,112 new cases of HIV infection 
     were recorded in the first nine months of this year, compared 
     to only 12 in all of 1999, officials said.
       The U.N. report said that in Eastern Europe, as in the rest 
     of the world, AIDS affects a disproportionate number of young 
     people. The main method of transmission in the former Soviet 
     Union is through injecting drugs.
       ``It is a teen-age epidemic--teen-agers experimenting with 
     drugs, teen-agers experimenting with sex,'' Piot said.
       Officials in Eastern Europe have blamed the epidemic's 
     increase partly on the sudden opening of borders, the growth 
     of organized crime and weakened social services following the 
     collapse of communist rule a decade ago.
       Many young people, bored and unsure about their future, 
     turn to drugs or unprotected sexual encounters, officials 
     said.
       Since the first clinical evidence of AIDS appeared 20 years 
     ago, more than 22 million people have died. AIDS is the 
     leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa, which has been 
     hit hardest by the epidemic.
       This year, African nations will experience 3.4 million new 
     infections and 2.3 million deaths--losses that not only drain 
     national budgets but also put future generations at risk, 
     depriving children of parents and local economies of their 
     work force, officials said.
       U.N. officials predicted that some of the most affected 
     African nations could lose

[[Page H8632]]

     more than 20 percent of their GDP by 2020 because of AIDS.
       The U.N. report said unsafe sex was on the rise in high-
     income countries such as the United States and some European 
     nations, subsequently triggering a rise in sexually 
     transmitted diseases, including HIV.
       ``All the emphasis is put on treatment, which has had a 
     major impact, but prevention has been neglected and education 
     has been neglected,'' Piot said. ``The price that we will 
     have to pay for that neglect is very high.''
       The report found a bright spot in Cambodia, where 
     prevention measures have had a significant impact, but 
     officials also warned about the deteriorating situation in 
     China and in the Caribbean, which continues to be the second 
     most affected region in the world.
       Last June, the U.N. General Assembly held a special session 
     on HIV/AIDS, winning pledges from governments to pursue new 
     preventive actions and contribute more funds to the fight. 
     The United Nations estimates that some $10 billion will be 
     needed every year to fight AIDS in low and middle-income 
     countries.

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