[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 12 (Monday, March 27, 2000)]
[Pages 617-619]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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.

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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. 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

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F. Celeste; Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of India; and Patty 
Stonesifer, cochair and president, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. A 
tape was not available for verification of the content of these remarks.