Congresswoman Lee’s Statement on the 25th Anniversary of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic
(Washington, DC) – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) issued the following statement on the 25th anniversary of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which is June 5th:
“In the 25 years since the CDC reported the first cases of a rare form of pneumonia among 5 gay men in Los Angeles, HIV/AIDS has infected nearly 70 million throughout the world and killed more than 25 million.
“Although a substantial amount of progress has been made in mobilizing communities, civil society and governments to respond to this devastating global epidemic, much more remains to be done if we are to truly defeat it.
“According to a new report released by UNAIDS, an estimated 38.6 million people were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2005. Just last year alone, over 4.1 million were newly infected, while 2.8 million died of AIDS.
“In the United States, despite 25 years of advocacy and 15 years of implementing an advanced prevention, care, and treatment program currently funded at over $2 billion a year, the epidemic continues to grow. The CDC estimates that over 1 million people are now living with HIV/AIDS, a quarter of who do not even know they are infected.
“Our challenge lies not only in dramatically scaling up funding and resources to achieving universal access to prevention care and treatment resources, but in formulating policy frameworks that will lead to the eradication of HIV/AIDS entirely, not just its containment.
“We need a radically different approach to fighting HIV/AIDS among women and girls that recognizes and combats the factors that lead to gender disparities in rates of HIV/AIDS. To do that, we’ve got to eliminate the abstinence-only-until marriage earmark and redefine our HIV prevention policy to encompass education for girls, child marriage, property and inheritance rights, social norms and attitudes towards women, gender equity, and the legal enforcement of women’s rights.
“We also have to make significant programmatic investments in training and retaining health workers to end the brain drain that affects countries battling HIV in the developing world. That means ending the perverse system of constraints imposed by the IMF and World Bank that prevents countries from spending on their health sector, while also providing incentives for health workers who have left their country of origin to return and remain.
“Domestically we have not done enough to address the rapid growth of the disease among minority communities, especially African Americans. We must rapidly expand the Minority AIDS Initiative to support capacity building and outreach among minority communities and include it as part of the Ryan White CARE Act.
“We must also take a hard look at our correctional system to eliminate a significant entry point for HIV and other diseases into our communities. We can start by pairing condom distribution with prevention education to educate and protect both incarcerated persons and correctional officers.
“Each of these efforts must be combined, with increased investments in research and development for microbicides, vaccines, pediatric formulations, and advanced diagnostics and medications that can be delivered quickly efficiently and cheaply to the millions of people around the world who are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.
“As the HIV/AIDS epidemic turns twenty five our challenge is clear. We must renew our commitment to battling the disease and significantly increase funding to implement these important policies. We cannot allow another generation to experience the horrors of HIV/AIDS.”
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