[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 23402]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



   ADDRESSING HIV/AIDS PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY IN MINORITY COMMUNITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.

  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Waters) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) 
who are members of the health brain trust of the Congressional Black 
Caucus for joining me here this evening.

  Mr. Speaker, I rise to once again register our dissatisfaction with 
the funding that the committee is proposing to provide for the HIV/AIDS 
public health emergency in African-American communities and other 
communities of color. Mr. Speaker, people of color are represented in 
the AIDS epidemic in numbers that far exceed our representation in the 
general population. African Americans and Hispanics are the most 
severely affected groups, representing well over 60 percent of all AIDS 
cases in the United States. Of the estimated 40,000 new HIV infections 
each year, almost 50 percent are in African Americans, and 20 percent 
are in Hispanics. African Americans were 49 percent of new HIV 
infections in 1998 and Latinos were 11 percent.

  In 1998, African Americans accounted for 45 percent of all total AIDS 
cases; 40 percent of all cases in men, 62 percent of all cases in 
women, and 62 percent of all cases in children. In 1998, the AIDS 
incidence rate among African Americans was eight times that of whites, 
and for Latinos the incidence rate was 3.8 times that of whites.

  Mr. Speaker, if this does not represent an emergency in our 
community, I do not know what does. This is further compounded by the 
disparities that exist in all communities of color with respect to 
heart disease, cancer, diabetes and infant mortality among other 
diseases. But in all of these, African-American communities experience 
disparities that far exceed all other groups combined. We need to 
change these dire statistics. They are a blight on this great country. 
And we need to provide access to health care for all on a level that is 
equal to the majority population.

  The CBC initiative seeks to do this by empowering communities with 
the resources they need to be agents of change themselves for better 
health. Yesterday, I spoke about the need to fund the offices of 
minority health within the agencies of the Department of Health and 
Human Services and the importance of elevating the office of minority 
health research at NIH to a center. Today, I just want to say a few 
words about the need to address this issue in our correctional 
facilities.

  There are some statistics that we just cannot ignore. In 1995, over 
1.5 million adult arrests and over 3 million juvenile arrests were made 
in the United States. The U.S. prison population increased threefold 
between 1980 and 1996. Today, there are approximately 1.7 million 
persons housed in correctional facilities, jails and prisons, in this 
country. That is the second largest incarcerated population in the 
developed world, behind only Russia. All told, there are more than 6 
million people under some form of the criminal justice supervision, 
under some form of juvenile justice supervision in the United States on 
any given day. The majority of these individuals are arrested in, and 
returned to, urban, low-income communities.

  Rates of HIV, STDs, sexually transmitted diseases, and tuberculosis 
are disproportionately high among the U.S. incarcerated population 
compared to the U.S. population at large. This presents challenges as 
well as opportunities. In addition to high rates of infectious 
diseases, the inmate population is also plagued by a number of chronic 
diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and substance abuse. In 1996, 
63 percent of jail inmates belonged to racial or ethnic minorities, up 
slightly from 61 percent in 1989. 41.6 percent were white, and 41.1 
percent were African American. Among Federal prisoners, 58.6 percent 
were white and 38.2 percent were African American.

                              {time}  1830

  Looking specifically at HIV, correctional populations have the 
highest rates of HIV infection of any public institution. A 1995 report 
by the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that the AIDS case rate in 
prisons is six times higher than the overall U.S. AIDS case rate. In 
fact, 23 percent of all State and Federal prison inmates were reported 
to be infected with HIV. In State prisons, 4 percent of female 
prisoners were HIV positive compared to 2.3 percent of male prisoners.

  We must bring the needed funds to develop and implement strategies 
related to surveillance and reporting in correctional facilities. We 
must develop continuity of care programs and provide technical 
assistance to jails and communities dealing with these issues. We hope 
that this House will recognize the wide disparities in health care that 
exist for people of color in this country and the challenge it presents 
for us as we prepare to enter the 21st century.

  Mr. Speaker, we ask that our colleagues join us in facing this 
challenge and addressing it successfully.

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