[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 132 (Friday, September 7, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S11267]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              TUBERCULOSIS

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, every day an estimated 4,400 lives are lost 
around the world to tuberculosis--day in, day out, yesterday, today, 
and tomorrow. Fifteen lives will be lost, roughly, in the few minutes 
of my remarks.
  Tuberculosis is an urgent global crisis that demands our attention 
and our response. Two billion people--two billion people--one-third of 
the world's population, carry around with them the tuberculosis 
bacterium. As many as 10 million to 15 million in the United States 
alone are infected with the TB bacterium. Most will not get sick, but 
many of them are in some jeopardy.
  Nine million people, practically the population of my State of Ohio, 
become sick with active tuberculosis every year, and 1.6 million people 
will die.
  We struggle with many diseases that are beyond our scientific 
understanding, but tuberculosis is not one of them. These deaths are 
preventable. TB is the greatest curable infectious killer worldwide.
  Much of the good work of the legislation this Senate passed last 
night will be undermined if we do not do a better job of controlling 
tuberculosis. Our investments in development will do little to improve 
economic conditions if entire populations--as are so many in Africa, 
especially, and India, especially--are reeling from this disease.
  Combating TB is fundamental to sustaining economic development in 
poor countries. My colleagues know this.
  Congress--following the leadership of the Foreign Operations 
Subcommittee Chairman, Pat Leahy, and ranking member, Judd Gregg--has 
made great strides in investing greater resources in global health. 
Diseases such as HIV and malaria have received tremendous increases 
over the past several years, and I hope this trend will continue.
  Last night, the Senate did something about this. The amendment I 
offered last night, with Senators Brownback, Durbin, Boxer, and Smith, 
added $90 million in funding for our international efforts against 
tuberculosis, bringing total spending to $200 million. Undoubtedly, 
that will save lives.
  Combating TB must go hand in hand with the fight against HIV. Up to 
50 percent of people who are HIV positive develop tuberculosis. As many 
as half the deaths from HIV in Africa actually are deaths from 
tuberculosis. It is the leading cause of death among people who are HIV 
positive all over the world.
  HIV infection weakens a person's immune system, making it 50 times 
more likely that person will develop active tuberculosis. So if someone 
is carrying the TB bacterium in their body--as is a third of the 
world's people--if they get infected with HIV or have some other 
disease or weakness--from malnutrition or something else--they are much 
more likely to develop active tuberculosis.
  To compound that, unchecked, drug-resistant tuberculosis, including 
deadly XDR-TB, threatens to reverse progress made against AIDS and TB 
worldwide. In today's world, extensively drug-resistant TB--so-called 
XDR-TB--poses a grave public health threat never more than a plane ride 
away.
  This past June, we got a wakeup call when an American boarded a plane 
to Europe while infected with drug-resistant tuberculosis. Luckily, his 
was not the most virulent strain. But his example shows us clearly that 
this disease does affect America and that more resources for TB are 
needed to prevent, identify, treat, and control extensively drug-
resistant tuberculosis.
  We need to heed that wakeup call and act before it is too late. It is 
within our power. There is no mystery here. We know what to do. We know 
how to treat and cure regular so-called garden-variety tuberculosis. We 
know how to treat and cure multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in an 
overwhelming majority of cases. And we know how to treat, generally, 
extensively drug-resistant--XDR-TB--tuberculosis and cure people of 
that. It is within our means. Treating regular, garden-variety TB costs 
only $20 per person. It is a small price to pay to save our lives.

  I thank my colleagues, including the junior Senator from Pennsylvania 
for his support of this issue. Last night was a victory for people in 
the developing world who are so often victims of tuberculosis, who so 
often suffer from that. It is also a victory for people in our country, 
a few of whom have TB, but most--but the many more people who are a 
plane ride away or are potentially exposed to this tuberculosis 
bacteria.
  I thank my colleagues.

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