[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 10 (Monday, March 15, 1999)]
[Pages 411-412]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Selection of the Director of the National Institutes of 
Health Vaccine Research Center

March 11, 1999

    I am very pleased to join Secretary of Health and Human Services 
Donna Shalala, National Institutes of Health Director Harold Varmus, and 
my AIDS policy office director, Sandra Thurman, in welcoming Dr. Gary 
Nabel as the first Director of the new Vaccine Research Center at the 
NIH. Dr. Nabel's long and distinguished career as a research scientist 
will be an incredible asset in our efforts to find preventative 
vaccines.
    The first order of business for Dr. Nabel will be the effort to 
develop a vaccine for HIV. This is a top priority of our AIDS research 
efforts. Here in the United States, over 40,000 people are newly 
infected with HIV every year. Across the world, the rate is nearly 6 
million people per year. These are lives in jeopardy. Though we have 
made remarkable progress in treating HIV and AIDS, there is still no 
cure. So our best hope of bringing an end to the AIDS pandemic is to 
find a safe and effective vaccine.
    I have issued a challenge to the scientific community to find an 
AIDS vaccine within the decade. We are making important strides towards 
that critical goal and the leadership of Dr. Nabel will help us progress 
even more. Dr. Varmus and his team of expert researchers at the NIH, 
working in collaboration with scientists from across the globe, have 
produced remarkable results in reducing AIDS mortality here and in many 
other developed nations. Their improved understanding of how HIV works 
will be invaluable in the effort to find a vaccine to prevent infection 
in the first place.
    The human tragedy of AIDS throughout the world must move all of us 
to action. The search for a vaccine for HIV must continue to be a global 
priority because millions of precious lives hang in the balance.

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