[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12608-12609]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




        CALLING FOR U.S. ACTION ON GLOBAL HIV AND AIDS PANDEMIC

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I rise today 
to talk about the global AIDS pandemic and the catastrophic 
consequences of doing so little, too little to combat it here at home 
and around the world.
  Here at home, HIV and AIDS is the number one killer of young black 
men. Here in the United States, where most are able to afford or have 
access to the standard of care for this disease, the instance of 
mortality has declined sharply, thanks to antiretroviral combination 
therapy. But make no mistake about it, HIV is a clever, still lethal 
virus, and the emphasis of these drugs is limited.
  For many who have developed resistance to these drugs, the treatment 
is called salvage therapy. Think about the term, salvage therapy. It is 
shocking and sad that the two words are used in the same breath, but it 
is true.
  The pharmaceutical industry, often with substantial government 
funding and research support from NIH and CDC, has made great strides, 
and it will have to do so again because many of the newest HIV cases 
are diagnosed resistant to one or more of the existing drugs. I call on 
the pharmaceutical industry to redouble its effort to consider spending 
much less on public relations and marketing and much more on research 
and development.
  I would ask this Congress to take up and pass the legislation 
authored by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler), who has long 
advocated for an anti-AIDS effort similar to the Manhattan Project.
  Twenty million people have died from AIDS in the last two decades. 
According to the United Nations AIDS agency, 70 million more people 
could perish in the next 20 years.
  Looking internationally, the picture is bleak and in danger of 
becoming a world destabilizing force, a holocaust due to woefully 
inadequate resources. The problem is not limited to African nations, 
which currently have the greatest share of the infection. Other 
developing countries, as well as Russia and China, are only just coming 
to grips with the severity of the HIV and AIDS epidemic.

[[Page 12609]]

  The devastation of vast percentages of populations in African nations 
will create national security concerns for the United States and other 
nations within the near future unless we act now to arrest and 
eradicate this scourge.
  Sub-Saharan Africa represents 77 percent of AIDS deaths, 70 percent 
of HIV-infected people and nearly 70 percent of all new infections and 
90 percent of children infected with the virus.

                              {time}  1715

  These are truly, truly grim statistics.
  We will not begin to change these numbers until we begin to invest as 
though HIV-AIDS were a profound threat to the public health worldwide 
and a threat to national security as well. We cannot afford to be 
penny-wise and pound-foolish. Eight thousand five hundred people die 
each day from AIDS, more than twice as many as perished on September 
11. Another sobering statistic.
  I want to thank my colleague, the gentlewoman from California, for 
her continuous leadership on the complex issues involved with HIV and 
AIDS. I share her concern that support for another $1 billion 
contribution by the United States to the Global Trust Fund is needed. 
We are obligated to do that. We are morally challenged to do that. We 
need to do that to support comprehensive prevention and treatment 
efforts, and, ultimately, to find a cure.

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