[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 49 (Monday, December 7, 1998)]
[Pages 2401-2402]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7153--World AIDS Day, 1998

December 1, 1998

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    On World AIDS Day, we are heartened by the knowledge that our 
unprecedented investments in AIDS research have resulted in new 
treatments that are prolonging the lives of many people living with the 
disease. Thousands of scientists, health care professionals, and 
patients themselves have joined together to advance our understanding of 
HIV and AIDS and improve treatment options. Because of the heroic 
efforts of these people, fewer and fewer Americans are losing their 
lives to AIDS, and for that we are immensely thankful.
    But the AIDS epidemic is far from over. Within racial and ethnic 
minority communities, HIV and AIDS are a severe and ongoing crisis. 
While the number of deaths in our country attributed to AIDS has 
declined for 2 consecutive years, AIDS remains the leading killer of 
African American men aged 25-44 and the second leading killer of African 
American women in the same age group. African Americans, who comprise 
only 13 percent of the U.S. population, accounted for 43 percent of new 
AIDS cases in 1997 and 36 percent of all AIDS cases. Hispanic Americans 
represent just 10 percent of our population, but they account for more 
than 20 percent of new AIDS cases; and AIDS is also becoming a critical 
concern to Native American and Asian American communities. Young people 
of every racial and ethnic community are also disproportionately 
impacted by AIDS, both in the number of new AIDS cases and in the number 
of new HIV infections. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention estimate that approximately half of all new HIV infections in 
the United States occur in people under age 25 and that one-quarter 
occur in people under age 22.

[[Page 2402]]

    Across the world, the situation is even more grim. As with other 
epidemics before it, AIDS hits hardest in areas where knowledge about 
the disease is scarce and poverty is high. Of the nearly 6 million 
people newly infected with HIV each year, more than 90 percent live in 
the poorest nations of the world. Entire communities are threatened by 
this epidemic, and the growing number of children who will lose parents 
to AIDS will have a devastating impact on these societies. By the year 
2010, there may be as many as 40 million children who will have been 
orphaned by AIDS, and developing nations will have to struggle to deal 
with the overwhelming needs of a generation of young people left without 
parents.
    This year's World AIDS Day theme, ``Be A Force For Change,'' is a 
reminder that each of us has a role to play in bringing the AIDS 
epidemic to an end. Our response must be comprehensive and ongoing. It 
must also be a collaborative one, bringing together governments and 
communities in a shared effort to expand prevention efforts, raise 
awareness among young people of the risks of HIV infection and how to 
avoid it, increase access to lifesaving therapies, and ensure that those 
who are living with HIV and AIDS receive the care and services they 
need.
    Developing a vaccine for HIV is perhaps our best hope of eradicating 
this terrible disease and stemming the tide of pain and desolation it 
has wrought. The global community has joined together in making the 
development of an HIV vaccine a top international priority. Within the 
next decade, we hope to have the means to stop this deadly virus, but 
until we reach that day we must remain strong in our crusade to prevent 
the spread of HIV and AIDS and to care for those living with the 
disease. In this way we can best honor the memory of the many loved ones 
we have lost to AIDS.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim December 
1, 1998, as World AIDS Day. I invite the Governors of the States, the 
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, officials of the other territories subject 
to the jurisdiction of the United States, and the American people to 
join me in reaffirming our commitment to defeating HIV and AIDS. I 
encourage every American to participate in appropriate commemorative 
programs and ceremonies in workplaces, houses of worship, and other 
community centers and to reach out to protect and educate our children 
and to help and comfort all people who are living with HIV and AIDS.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of 
December, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, and 
of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twenty-third.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., December 3, 
1998]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on 
December 4.