Barbara Lee Responds to Report that AIDS Crisis is Growing
(Oakland, CA) – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), long recognized as a Congressional leader in the fight to stop HIV/AIDS, issued the following statement today in response to the joint report issues by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization that found that the global AIDS crisis continues to grow and evidence that there is a resurgence in HIV infection rates in countries that were previously stable or declining:
“As World AIDS Day approaches this year and we once again recognize the challenges that loom ahead of us, we cannot forget the faces that lie behind these statistics. Each of the 4.3 million new infections and the 2.9 million deaths that occured in 2006 represent real people with families and friends who love them, depend on them, and who mourn their loss. It is for those who have already died of this disease, the millions who live with it, and all those who continue to remain vulnerable that we must follow through on the theme of this year's World AIDS Day, to ‘Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.’
“The latest estimates from UNAIDS are clear: this epidemic continues to grow and it continues to kill. The United States must continue to show leadership and provide the resources to combat this devastating disease. I will be working with the new Democratic majority in the United States Congress to ensure that we are doing our part, so that we can reach the goal of universal access to care and treatment for all people living with HIV/AIDS by 2010.
“At the same time as we fight this disease on an international scale we cannot forget our own HIV/AIDS epidemic here in the United States, especially among African Americans. In the next Congress, we must dramatically increase funding for the Minority AIDS Initiative to build capacity and conducting targeted outreach in minority communities and we must re-authorize and fully fund the Ryan White CARE Act to provide prevention, care and treatment services for all who need them.”
In the upcoming Congress, Lee plans to reintroduce legislation to repeal the abstinence-only-until marriage earmark in federal law and develop a plan to address the vulnerability of women and girls to HIV infection in developing nations (HR 5674, the PATHWAY Act), and to combat the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in the US correctional system (HR 6083, the JUSTICE Act).
Lee’s accomplishments in promoting effective, bipartisan measures to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and bring treatment to the infected have earned her recognition both at home and abroad as a leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Lee was a leader in the bipartisan effort to designate $15 billion for the prevention, care, and treatment of HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria. She authored the bill to establish the framework for the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS and sponsored legislation that allows impoverished countries to purchase generic, cheaper HIV/AIDS drugs. In 2005, she successfully passed and the President signed into law legislation to focus U.S. foreign assistance on the impact of AIDS on orphans and vulnerable children in developing countries.
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