[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 169 (Thursday, November 20, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S15272]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              REGARDING SOUTH AFRICA'S NEW HIV/AIDS POLICY

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President. I rise to express my strong support for a 
decision taken over the last several days in South Africa.
  On Wednesday, South Africa's cabinet approved a plan for government-
sponsored HIV/AIDS treatment programs. Though late in coming, the 
decision had to be received as good news by South Africa's five million 
people infected with HIV. In a country where 600 people a day die of 
complications from AIDS, this is a life-saving announcement.
  Many of us feared we might not ever see this day. In August 2002, I 
sat with President Mbeki in Pretoria. His response to the AIDS crisis 
in his country was disheartening, even disconcerting. But he and his 
government have come a long way.
  We must be sure that we do our part now, Mr. President. I gather that 
the Foreign Operations and Labor-HHS conferences have agreed to provide 
$2.4 billion in global AIDS funding for FY 04. That is welcome and 
positive news. But it is still less than we promised the world, and 
given that 16,000 people a day contract this deadly virus we cannot 
afford to break that promise again next year.
  We will also have to take a look at the assumptions that are 
underlying our current AIDS policy. The President laid out an ambitious 
emergency AIDS program for the 14 countries hit hardest by this virus. 
With a robust prevention and treatment program coupled with aggressive 
recruitment, training and retention of qualified medical personnel, we 
will make a difference in those countries.
  But this pandemic is moving. While we act aggressively in these 14 
countries, we cannot afford to maintain just the status quo in the 
countries who are threatened with the next wave of this crisis. Recent 
studies in India suggest that the epidemic in that one country could 
match if not overwhelm the suffering we have already seen in Africa. In 
China, government mismanagement and poverty are contributing to an 
acceleration of the pandemic, and eastern Europe and Russia are seeing 
alarming rates of infection that threaten to overwhelm the weak health 
care infrastructures in those tenuous democracies.
  This is a huge challenge. We have begun to take some important steps 
to address it, but we are a long way from done.

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