[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 104 (Friday, July 26, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7424-S7425]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TAKING OUR STAND AGAINST HIV/AIDS

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I spent the first 20 years of my career 
studying and working in medicine. I graduated from medical school in 
1978. After that, I trained as a surgical resident for eight years. I 
then worked as a heart and lung transplant surgeon until I was elected 
to the United States Senate in 1994. During that time, HIV/AIDS went 
from a disease without a name to a global pandemic claiming nearly 20 
million people infected.
  It's hard to imagine an organism that cannot survive outside the 
human body can take such an immense toll on human life. But HIV/AIDS 
has done just that--already killing thirteen million people. Today more 
than 40 million people--including three million children--are infected 
with HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS is a plague of biblical proportions.
  And it has only begun to wreak its destruction upon humanity. Though 
one person dies from AIDS every ten seconds, two people are infected 
with HIV in that same period of time. If we continue to fight HIV/AIDS 
in the future as we have in the past, it will kill 68 million people in 
the 45 most affected countries between 2000 and 2020. We are losing the 
battle against this disease
  There is neither a cure nor a vaccine for HIV/AIDS. But we do have 
reliable and inexpensive means to test for it. Also, because we know 
how the disease is spread, we know how to prevent it from being spread. 
We even have treatments that can suppress the virus to almost 
undetectable levels and significantly reduce the risk of mothers 
infected with HIV/AIDS from passing the disease to their children.
  We have many tools at our disposal to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS. 
But are we using those tools as effectively as possible? The gloomy 
statistics prove overwhelming that we are not. What we must do is focus 
on what is truly needed and what is proven to work and marshal 
resources towards those solutions. We have beaten deadly diseases on a 
global scale before; we can win the battle against HIV/AIDS too.
  More than 70 percent of people infected with HIV/AIDS worldwide live 
in Sub-Saharan Africa. But the devastation of the disease--and its 
potential to devastate in the future--is by no means limited to Africa. 
HIV/AIDS is global and lapping against the shores of even the most 
advanced and developed nations in the world.
  Asia and the Pacific are home to 6.6 million people infected with 
HIV/AIDS--including 1 million of the five million people infected last 
year. Infections are rising sharply--especially among the young and 
injecting drug users--in Russia and other Eastern European countries. 
And the Americas are not immune. Six percent of adults in Haiti and 
four percent of adults in the Bahamas are infected with HIV/AIDS.
  I believe the United States must lead the global community in the 
battle against HIV/AIDS. As Sir Elton John said in testimony before a 
committee on which I serve in the United States Senate, ``What America 
has done for its people has made America strong. What America has done 
for others has made America great.'' Perhaps in no better way can the 
United States show its greatness in the 21st century--and show its true 
selflessness to other nations--than leading a victorious effort to halt 
the spread of HIV/AIDS.
  But solving a global problem requires global leadership. 
International organizations, national governments, faith-based 
organizations and the private sector must coordinate with each other 
and work together toward common goals. And, most importantly, we must 
make communities the focus of our efforts. Though global leadership 
must come from places like Washington, New York and Brussels, resources 
must be directed to where they are needed the most--to the men and 
women in the villages and clinics and schools fighting HIV/AIDS on the 
front lines.
  Adequate funding is and will remain crucial to winning the battle 
against HIV/AIDS. But just as crucial as the amount of funding is how 
it is spent. Should we spend on programs that prevent or lower the rate 
of infection? Should we spend on treatments that may prolong the life 
of those who are already infected? Should we spend on the research and 
development of a vaccine? The answer is yes . . . to all three 
questions.
  We can only win the battle against HIV/AIDS with a balanced approach 
of prevention, care and treatment, and the research and development of 
an effective vaccine. HIV/AIDS has already infected tens of millions of 
people and will infect tens of millions more. We need to support proven 
strategies that will slow the spread of the virus and offer those 
already infected with the opportunity to live as normal lives as 
possible. And if our goal is to eradicate HIV/AIDS--and I believe that 
is an eminently achievable goal--then we must develop a highly 
effective vaccine.
  But even with proven education programs or free access to anti-
retroviral drugs or a vaccine that is 80 to 90 percent effective, our 
ability to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS and treat those already infected 
would be hampered. The infrastructure to battle HIV/AIDS in the most 
affected areas is limited at best. We need to train healthcare workers, 
help build adequate health facilities, and distribute basic lab and 
computer equipment to make significant

[[Page S7425]]

and sustainable progress over the long-term.
  To win the battle against HIV/AIDS, we must not only fight the 
disease itself, but also underlying conditions that contribute to its 
spread--poverty, starvation, civil unrest, limited access to 
healthcare, meager education systems and reemerging infectious 
diseases. Stronger societies, stronger economies and stronger 
democracies will facilitate a stronger response to HIV/AIDS and ensure 
a higher quality of life in the nations most affected by and most 
vulnerable to the disease and its continued spread.
  And we can make significant progress without vast sums of money and 
burgeoning new programs. Take, for example, providing something as 
basic and essential as access to clean water. 300 million or 45 percent 
of people in Sub-Saharan Africa don't have access to clean water. And 
those who are fortunate enough to have access sometimes spend hours 
walking to and from a well or spring.
  It costs only $1,000 to build a ``spring box'' that provides access 
to natural springs and protects against animal waste run-off and other 
elements that may cause or spread disease. 85 percent of the 10 million 
people who live in Uganda don't have access to a nearby supply of clean 
water. It would cost only $25 million to build enough ``spring boxes'' 
to provide most of the people living in rural Uganda with nearby access 
to clean water.
  Providing access to clean water is just one of the many ways in which 
the global community can empower the people most affected by and most 
vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. In some cases, such efforts--like supporting 
democracy and encouraging free markets--may cost little or take a long 
time, but they will make a significant difference in the battle against 
HIV/AIDS and the quality of life of billions of people throughout the 
world.
  We have defeated infectious diseases before--sometimes on an even 
larger scale. Smallpox, for example, killed 300 million people in the 
20th century. And as late as the 1950's, it afflicted up to 50 million 
people per year. But by 1979 smallpox was officially eradicated thanks 
to an aggressive and concerted global effort.
  What if we had not launched that effort in 1967? What if we had 
waited another 35 years? Smallpox likely would have infected 350 
million and killed 40 million more people. That is a hefty price for 
inaction--a price that we should be grateful we did not pay then, and 
we should not want to pay now.
  Right now we are losing the battle against HIV/AIDS. But that doesn't 
mean we can't win it in the end. Indeed, I believe we will ultimately 
eradicate HIV/AIDS. We have the tools to slow the spread of the disease 
and provide treatment to those already infected. And we have the 
scientific knowledge to develop an effective vaccine. But we need to 
focus our resources on what is truly needed and what is proven to work. 
And we need global leadership to meet a global challenge.
  In 2020, when it is estimated that more than 85 million people will 
have died from HIV/AIDS, how will we look back upon this day? Will we 
have proven the experts right with inaction? Or will we have proven 
them wrong with initiative? I hope that we will be able to say that in 
the year 2002 we took our stand against HIV/AIDS and began to turn back 
what could have been, but never became the most deadly disease in the 
history of the world.

                          ____________________