[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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