[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23322]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



            TREATING HIV-AIDS AS A THREAT TO GLOBAL SECURITY

  (Ms. WATSON of California asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. WATSON of California. Mr. Speaker, in honor of World AIDS Day, we 
must remember that it is estimated that by 2010, one-quarter of South 
Africa's population will be infected by HIV-AIDS. Other African nations 
are suffering similar rates of infection.
  In late August, I traveled to South Africa to examine the HIV-AIDS 
pandemic firsthand. While there, I visited KwaZulu-Natal, a region with 
the highest HIV infection in the world. In that region, an estimated 1 
in 3 adults tests positive for HIV. The time has come for the United 
States to treat HIV as the threat to global security that it is.
  Let us not forget that Osama bin Laden has exploited the misery of 
another state where civil society has collapsed, Afghanistan, to serve 
as a base for his terror network. The United States must act to prevent 
HIV from destroying an entire generation, not only of Africans, but 
those in Afghanistan.
  I urge my colleagues to remember this day on the 1st of December and 
ask for a renewed effort to fight against HIV-AIDS in Africa.

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