[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 93 (Thursday, July 11, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H4526-H4527]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE 14TH INTERNATIONAL AIDS CONFERENCE FOR KNOWLEDGE AND COMMITMENT TO
ACTION
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, this weekend in Barcelona, Spain, 15,000 people
came together for the 14th International AIDS Conference for Knowledge
and Commitment for Action.
I had the privilege to participate in this very important conference
and can say with certainty that while Congress and the administration
are waking up to the desperate call of millions of individuals living
with HIV and AIDS, and those yet to be born to this scourge, we are
still not doing enough.
Let me bring the Members up to date on this global pandemic. In 2001,
there were 5 million new AIDS infections across the globe. Today there
are 40 million people living with AIDS worldwide, and there are 14
million AIDS orphans.
In the United States, 950,000 have been diagnosed with AIDS. African
Americans make up only 13 percent of the total United States
population, but 54 percent of new infections and 82 percent of women
who are newly infected with HIV are African American and Hispanic.
In my district in Oakland, California, we declared a state of
emergency in order to focus attention on this tragic, tragic crisis.
The latest statistics indicate that the number of new infections is
slowing in Alameda County; yet we must do more.
{time} 1645
AIDS is a disease that affects the entire human family. It has
impacted every corner of the Earth. Therefore, we must discuss this
problem in a global context. We must address prevention, treatment,
vaccines, access, and funding in a comprehensive fashion.
At the conference, I heard repeated over and over again that while
developing a vaccine we must help developing countries develop the
required heath care delivery systems and infrastructure to ensure equal
access. We cannot repeat the pattern we have seen on the African
continent where access to anti-retroviral drugs and AIDS treatment are
far from equal. Currently in Africa more than 28 million people are
living with HIV and AIDS. However, only 30,000 are in treatment. In
comparison to the United States, nearly 100 percent of people who are
infected are in treatment and they need it and they receive it.
At the conference we again engaged the ongoing debate over prevention
versus treatment. Most concluded, and rightfully so, that it must not
be an either/or dilemma. Working to prevent the mother-to-child
transmission must not exclude keeping the mother, father and child
alive. Once again, there is no way we should buy into an either/or
strategy.
While I am pleased that President Bush has acknowledged the need for
drugs to reduce mother-to-child transmissions, that is only one
component of what should be a multifaceted approach to tackling this
pandemic. In Barcelona at a remarkable AIDS march for life, thousands
came together to call for treatment now and presented the Barcelona
Declaration, which was read into the opening session of the conference.
This declaration called for securing donations of $10 billion per
year for global AIDS; antiretroviral treatment for at least 2 million
people with HIV/AIDS in the developing world by 2004; lower affordable
drug prices and universal access to generics in the developing world;
and a new global partnership between government and NGOs.
Mr. Speaker, the entire Barcelona Declaration is as follows:
Barcelona Declaration
$10 billion for aids treatment
2 million people worldwide in treatment by 2004
Whereas every single day AIDS claims 8,500 lives, or the
equivalent of three World Trade Center disasters daily;
Whereas by December 2001, 40 million people were living
with HIV/AIDS, and by 2005 an estimated 100 million will be
infected;
Whereas more than 40 million children--most of them in
developing nations--will be orphaned by AIDS by 2010;
Whereas the World Health Organization this year has stated
that anti-retroviral treatment is medically essential and has
issued specific treatment guidelines, monitoring standards
and regimen recommendations;
Whereas those on treatment represent less than 2% of all
those infected with HIV because such treatment is almost
completely unavailable in developing nations;
Whereas over 500 non-governmental organizations globally
have endorsed the Barcelona March for Life, which demands
treatment access to at least 2 million individuals in the
developing world by the time of the 2004 International
Conference on AIDS in Bangkok;
Whereas these organizations represent AIDS activists from
Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands, Australia, Europe,
Central and South America, and North America
Therefore, we declare as activists pledged to life for all
persons with HIV/AIDS that we are committed to the following
goals:
1. Securing donation of $10 billion dollars per year for
global AIDS;
2. Antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for at least two million
people with HIV/AIDS in the developing world by the 2004
Bangkok AIDS conference;
3. Lower, affordable ARV drug prices in the developed world
and universal access to generics in the developing world by
Bangkok, 2004; and
4. A new global partnership between government and NGOs
recognizing the primary role of NGOs in the global fight
against AIDS.
We call on the delegates of the Barcelona International
AIDS Conference to pledge themselves to these goals.
Now, I must mention a very disappointing turn of events leading up to
the Barcelona conference. Many African delegates, especially those
living with HIV and AIDS, were singled out and denied visas by Spain
for questionable reasons. Therefore, the conference did not benefit
from the insights of those living with this disease at its epicenter in
Africa. We lost the voices we heard at the 13th conference in Durban,
South Africa, in 2000.
In Barcelona we heard many strategies and staggering statistics of
lives destroyed, but we also heard models of
[[Page H4527]]
hope. In Uganda, Thailand and Senegal, for example, strong national
leadership partnered with community-wide response are reducing new HIV
infections and AIDS diagnoses and focusing on treatment measures for
their people.
We must continue to support these efforts by increasing U.S.
bilateral and multilateral funding for vital AIDS, tuberculosis and
malaria programs. I am even more convinced that the United States must
put at least, and this is a minimum, just at least $1 billion into the
global trust fund for starters. Dr. Peter Piot, the director of UNAIDS,
said that a $10 billion effort will only begin to make a dent in this
crisis. We will never see a favorable result in a crisis of this
magnitude if we continue to nickel and dime our efforts.
I agree that we must streamline bureaucracies and facilitate better
coordination, but that should happen while we ramp up our response.
Together in a bipartisan effort we must now move forward with
appropriate significant resources for this life-and-death effort. It is
time to put our money where our mouth is.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde)
and his very diligent staff, and the ranking member, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Lantos), and his staff, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr.
Leach) and Mary Andrus of his staff, and the gentlewoman from the
Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen), the gentlewoman from California (Ms.
Millender-McDonald), and Michael Riggs of my staff for making HIV/AIDS
a priority of the Committee on International Relations.
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