[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 99 (Friday, July 16, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8269-S8271]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             AIDS IN AFRICA

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I want to briefly comment on a headline 
from an article from the U.K. Daily Independent. It could have been 
really from any periodical, but the headline says, ``AIDS reduces 
African life expectancy to 33.'' That is 33 years of age. In my office 
this morning, I came across this, and it hits me that this little virus 
we have lived with since the early 1980s, when it was first described 
and detected in this country--in this country nobody had died of this 
little virus, but then 5 people died, 100 died, and now thousands of 
people in this country have died; and then it killed about 500,000 
people, and then a million, and then 5 million, and then 23 million 
people have died. It is destroying the continent of Africa, where the 
life expectancy is 33 years of age.
  I ask unanimous consent to have the article printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

[[Page S8270]]

                [From the UK Independent, July 16, 2004]

               AIDS Reduces African Life Expectancy to 33

                         (By Elizabeth Davies)

       The AIDS pandemic is ravaging countries in sub-Saharan 
     Africa, drastically reducing life expectancy in some parts to 
     less than 33 years, a new UN report said yesterday.
       The devastating impact of the crisis can be seen most 
     clearly in seven African countries, including Malawi and 
     Mozambique, where babies born in 2002 are not expected to 
     live past 40 years because of the prevalence of HIV. Children 
     in Zambia, where 17 per cent of the population are infected 
     with the virus, are predicted to live just 32 years. The 
     seven countries have, between them, seen an average drop in 
     life expectancy of 13.5 years since 1990, the UN human 
     development report said.
       ``In all these countries, AIDS is reversing the hard-won 
     development gains of recent decades,'' said Elizabeth Lwanga, 
     the deputy director of the United Nations Development 
     Programme (UNDP) for Africa. ``We need an unprecedented 
     response to this crisis, which is taking a devastating toll 
     on our communities.''
       With almost a quarter of its population infected with the 
     virus, Zimbabwe has been the country most dramatically 
     affected. Life expectancy there has plummeted from 57 years 
     in 1990 to 34 in 2002.
       In Swaziland, where one in three people between the ages of 
     15 and 49 are AIDS sufferers, life expectancy has dropped by 
     almost 20 years, and in Botswana, where the disease affects 
     37 per cent of the population, people can expect to live 16 
     years less now than in 1970.
       Sub-Saharan Africa is home to just over 10 per cent of the 
     world's population--and to almost two-thirds of all people 
     living with HIV. In 2003, an estimated three million people 
     in the area became infected for the first time, while 2.2 
     million died. As a result, many of the countries are 
     considerably poorer than they were a decade ago; 13 of them 
     are virtually the first countries in the UNDP report's 
     history to have suffered a reversal in living standards.
       The UNDP administrator, Mark Malloch Brown, said that the 
     virus caused such destruction because it affected all aspects 
     of life. Those who fell victim to the disease left behind 
     them countries struggling to cope with the loss of such a 
     large proportion of the workforce.
       ``The AIDS crisis cripples states at all levels, because 
     the disease attacks people in their most productive years,'' 
     said Mr. Malloch Brown. ``It tears apart the foundation of 
     everything, from public administration and health care to the 
     family structures.''
       Mohga Kamal-Smith a health policy adviser for Oxfam, 
     pointed to the failure of the international community as one 
     of the main reasons for the devastation. ``As the epidemic 
     spread, the donor contributions from richer countries went 
     down,'' she said. ``Hardly any of the governments have 
     achieved the 0.7 per cent GDP contribution that they 
     committed to.''
       The UNDP's annual report shows the drop in contributions 
     from the highest-ranked countries in the list, particularly 
     from Norway and the United States.
       The lead author of the report, Sakiko Fukada-Parr, 
     acknowledged that the most afflicted countries face enormous 
     problems but said she believed that solutions may be found.
       ``AIDS is currently presenting a very basic problem in 
     human development,'' she said. ``But other countries, like 
     Senegal and Brazil, have achieved partial success in fighting 
     the disease, due to easily accessible medicine and all 
     elements of the countries getting involved.''

  Mr. FRIST. Madam President, in part, the second paragraph in the 
article says:

       The devastating impact of the crisis can be seen most 
     clearly in seven African countries, including Malawi and 
     Mozambique, where babies born in 2002 are not expected to 
     live past 40 years because of the prevalence of HIV.

  Without going into details of the causes, that dramatic impact 
demands, for a moral reason, a strong international response. I am 
proud that the United States is leading that moral response. This 
crisis is one of the great moral, humanitarian public health crises of 
our times. We need to address that.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, will the Senator yield?
  Mr. FRIST. Yes.
  Mr. REID. Senator Daschle and I traveled to Africa a couple years ago 
this August. I was stunned then to go to Botswana where the average 
life expectancy is 39 years. Since then, it has dropped even lower. As 
we speak, people are dying. They are losing about 7,500 a day on the 
continent of Africa. So I am very glad that the majority leader, who is 
a physician, is following this. This is something that I don't know 
what we can do about. We are trying, and we have joined with the 
administration to try to do something about it.
  Later in the day, would the leader be in a position to tell us more 
regarding what we are going to do next week?
  Mr. FRIST. Madam President, yes, I certainly will. There are a number 
of issues, and we will talk about it later this morning. We will be in 
next week, including Monday. I would like to have the Myers vote early 
Tuesday afternoon. We have the Defense Appropriations bill which will 
be coming back from the House. As soon as it comes back, that very 
important bill we have acted on in the Senate will be addressed 
certainly next week. In addition, the Democratic leadership and the 
Republican leadership have begun discussions. There is likely to be 
another conference report coming back from the House with regard to a 
tax package. Nobody in the conference has to determine what the package 
actually is, but it will focus on issues like the 10-percent tax 
bracket, extension of the child tax credit, marriage penalty relief, 
those sorts of issues that I suspect will be addressed on the floor of 
the Senate next week. We can discuss other business. Next week will be 
a busy one. It will be our last week before going on a very long 
recess.
  Finally, on Botswana, the Senator from Nevada mentioned two things. 
First of all, Senator Daschle and your delegation went about a year and 
a half ago. We followed that the next year with another bipartisan 
delegation to very similar countries. It takes that sort of direct 
participation on our part to go and see the travesty, the devastation, 
and to see that a large portion of these societies has been wiped out 
by this little virus which we can cure eventually. I am confident. It 
takes that participation on our part. I encourage our colleagues, even 
though people say Senators need to stay right here in the United 
States, to do traveling, interaction, dialog, observation. Since those 
two journeys, we have been able to come back and we can, with pride, 
say we are the world leader in addressing this moral public health 
challenge. That comes from action here, translated into action on the 
floor, which is what we have done.

  In Botswana, if we compare 1970 to today--and this article points it 
out--someone born in 1970 would have lived 16 more years if this virus 
had not been around. So it has cut 16 years, comparing 1970 to today, 
off someone's life expectancy in Botswana, where the assistant 
Democratic leader and I visited. It is a tough problem, one we can 
address together.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, Botswana is a model democracy, a great 
country, great leadership, no corruption. I will respond briefly to the 
distinguished majority leader.
  My last trip to Africa was a life-changing experience. I had been to 
other places, but to see the spread of AIDS was a life-changing 
experience for me, to see the orphans. The orphans are an epidemic in 
Africa. All these little kids have no parents, both parents having died 
from AIDS. To see the personal devastation of communities being wiped 
out and people not being educated is a terrible situation.
  Having come to this body from the House of Representatives, I served 
there on the Foreign Affairs Committee. I agree with the distinguished 
majority leader, part of our job is to find out what is going on in the 
rest of the world, and I think our taxpayers are well paid by what we 
do here by our going and seeing what is going on in other parts of the 
world. We have responsibilities being the only superpower in the world. 
I am glad to see the majority leader does not cringe from the fact he 
has traveled, and he is trying to find out what is going on in other 
parts of the world. I believe, without any reservation or question, 
that those Senators who choose not to travel--and it is a personal 
decision, but I think it is a bad decision.
  Mr. FRIST. Madam President, we were talking about Africa, but this 
little virus right here in Washington, DC, is killing people every day. 
When we talk about Africa, we use that as a model, at least for me. It 
could equally be Russia where the rate is probably the fastest growing 
in the world, or Haiti. Senator DeWine constantly reminds us how Haiti 
has been devastated.
  When we talk Africa, HIV/AIDS, we are really talking about a virus 
that knows no boundaries--Washington, DC, Nashville, TN, across the 
world--and that is important to research and development. If we kill 
the little virus, it

[[Page S8271]]

helps people here in the District, it helps people across this country, 
Haiti, India, Russia, and that is why it is so important; that is why 
we are pulling together the great science we have today. Once we get 
rid of the virus, it goes away across the world.
  I did not intend to talk about this little virus except that it is so 
devastating.
  Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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