[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6169]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



               HIV/AIDS, A DISEASE OF INTERNATIONAL SCOPE

  (Mrs. CHRISTENSEN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I want to take this first 
opportunity, since the case against South Africa by the pharmaceutical 
industry has been withdrawn, to applaud the recent agreement that has 
been reached. The HIV/AIDS pandemic represents a major human disaster, 
with Sub-Saharan Africa bearing the brunt of the devastation. More than 
70 percent of the 35 million people infected lived in Sub-Saharan 
Africa.
  South Africa, with 4.2 million infected as of 1999, has the world's 
largest number of HIV-infected individuals, with an estimated 250,000 
AIDS deaths in that year. Last week, with this landmark agreement, a 
major barrier to help and health has been removed. We can now and must 
now move forward to address the multiplicity of issues that challenge 
us, forge a better health care infrastructure, support government and 
community-based programs, increase and improve prevention efforts and 
make up-to-date and effective treatment available on the African 
continent.
  As we continue to struggle against this pandemic, we must not forget 
that this is truly a disease of international scope and that people of 
African descent in the United States and the Caribbean have rates of 
HIV infection and AIDS that are similar in face and only slightly less 
in proportional magnitude than that of our brothers and sisters on the 
mother continent.

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