    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [March 24, 2000]
    [Pages 525-526]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Mahavir Trust Hospital in Hyderabad, India
    March 24, 2000

        Thank you very much. Good morning, Chief Minister Naidu. Thank you for welcoming me today to your State
    and to this magnificent city. Dr. Aruna, thank you
    for your remarks and for your work. Dr. Kolluri, to Ms. Rachel Chatterjee, the Minister of Health and the other ministers of the
    Government that are here; to the staff of the Mahavir Trust Hospital, I
    thank you all for your dedication and for making me and our American
    delegation so welcome.
        I am honored to be joined today by my daughter, by the American
    Ambassador to India, Mr. Celeste, and his
    wife, Jacqueline Lundquist; by the
    Secretary of Commerce, Bill Daley, and the
    Administrator of our Agency for International Development, Brady
    Anderson; and by six distinguished Members
    of our Congress: Congressman Gary Ackerman
    and Representative Nita Lowey from New York;
    Congressman Jim McDermott from Washington;
    Congressman Ed Royce from California;
    Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee from
    Texas; and Representative Jan Schakowsky from Illinois. We are delighted to be here, and we are
    very interested in what you are doing, and impressed. And we thank you.
        We come today to celebrate a success story and to join with you in
    meeting a new challenge. As Dr. Aruna said, the success story is the
    virtual complete eradication of polio from the face of the Earth. In
    1987, India reported 27,000 cases of this crippling disease. Today, only
    1,000 Indians are afflicted, and as you have just heard, there are no
    reported new cases this year.
        India has collaborated in this effort with Rotary International,
    with the Gates Foundation, with UNICEF, the World Health Organization,
    and with the U.S. Agency for International Development, or AID.
        I would like to say just a special word of appreciation to our
    Agency for International Development. It has meant a great deal to
    America's partnership on a very human level with people all across the
    world and especially here in India. It has guided our efforts to fight
    diseases that threaten children, to launch the Green Revolution that
    helped India achieve self-sufficiency in agriculture, and even more, to
    provide education, so that parents in India and throughout the world can
    determine the size of their families and keep their children in school,
    and to support great Indian universities like IIT.
        Now, we believe that USAID will be just as critical and just as
    active as India and the United States embark on a dynamic new
    partnership, as we face new challenges like developing the sources of
    clean energy, bringing the Internet to rural India so all its children
    can reach out to the world.
        So I'd like to say a special word of thanks today to our AID
    Administrator, Brady Anderson, and B.A.
    Rudolph and the other members of the AID team
    who are here. They are devoted to the cause of India, and I thank them
    for their work.
        I would also like to acknowledge, though, that on this polio
    eradication effort, the vast majority of the funding division and the
    work has come from India. And the whole world admires greatly what you
    have achieved.
        Now, for the challenge. Today is World Tuberculosis Day. It marks
    the day the bacteria which causes TB was discovered 118 years ago.

    [[Page 526]]

    And yet, even though this is 118-year-old knowledge, in the year 2000,
    TB kills more people around the world than ever before, including one
    almost every minute here in India.
        Malaria is also on the rise here and in Southeast Asia and in
    Africa. And while the AIDS infection rate here is still relatively low,
    India already has more people infected than any other nation in the
    world. These are human tragedies, economic calamities, and far more than
    crises for you, they are crises for the world.
        The spread of disease is the one global problem for which, by
    definition, no nation is immune. So we must do for AIDS, for malaria,
    for TB what you have done for polio. We must strengthen prevention,
    speed research, develop vaccines, and ultimately eliminate these modern
    plagues from the face of the Earth. It can be done--you have proved it
    with polio--if governments, foundations, and the private sector work
    together.
        With AIDS in particular, it also takes leadership. I want to commend
    Prime Minister Vajpayee for his efforts
    to focus India's attention on the urgency of this challenge. In every
    country and in any culture, it is difficult to talk about the issues
    involved with AIDS. I know a lot about this because it's been a problem
    for a long time in America, and now it's a big problem for you. But I
    would submit to you it is much easier to talk about AIDS than to watch
    another child die. And we have to face up to our responsibilities for
    preventing this disease, especially because there is not yet a cure.
        I am gratified that India is not waiting to act, and I am proud that
    the United States is supporting your efforts here. I am happy to
    announce that we will contribute another $4 million this year to
    programs to prevent AIDS and care for victims here in India, and another
    $1 million for TB research.
        I also want to thank--I want to thank the Gates Foundation and, in
    particular, Patty Stonesifer, because they
    are also announcing a number of new contributions today. No private
    foundation in America and, as far as I know, anywhere in the world has
    made remotely the commitment that the Gates Foundation has in the world
    struggle against infectious disease, and I thank them for that.
        Earlier this year, I asked Congress to support a $1 billion
    initiative to encourage the private sector to speed the development of
    vaccines for diseases that particularly affect the developing world--
    malaria, TB, and AIDS--and then to take steps to make those vaccines
    affordable to the poorest people in the world who need them. I am going
    to work hard to obtain support for that initiative in Congress. And
    again, I thank the Members of our Congress who are here from both
    parties for their interest and commitment to India and to the public
    health.
        The fight against infectious disease should be a growing part of our
    partnership with you. Indians already are trailblazers in vaccine
    research. India pioneered treatments for TB being used today in America.
    Many of the problems we have talked about are present here in India, but
    the solutions can be found here as well, in the dedication of men and
    women like those who work in this clinic and in the genius of your
    scientists and in the elected officials and their commitment, from Delhi
    to Hyderabad to countless towns and villages across this country.
        Many years ago, India and the United States helped to launch the
    Green Revolution, which freed millions of people from the misery of
    hunger. If we can join forces on health, determined again to place
    science in the service of humanity, we can defeat these diseases; we can
    give our children the healthy and hopeful lives they deserve in this new
    century.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:30 a.m. In his remarks, he referred to
    N. Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister, and Dr. S. Aruna, Minister of
    Health, Andhra Pradesh; Dr. Murthy Kolluri, who made a presentation on
    tuberculosis and polio treatment; Rachel Chatterjee, Commissioner of
    Hyderabad; U.S. Ambassador to India Richard F. Celeste; Prime Minister
    Atal Behari Vajpayee of India; and Patty Stonesifer, cochair and
    president, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.