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Guest Commentary: June 6, 2001
AIDS Is National Security Threat
The Honorable Thomas Daschle
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Twenty years ago [June 5th] the first cases of AIDS were diagnosed. Since that initial diagnosis in 1981, the toll wreaked upon humanity by this disease is mind boggling. Twenty-two million people have already died. And an additional thirty-six million people have become infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
In 1981, no one imagined the impact HIV/AIDS would have in the ensuing two decades. And, unfortunately, no one would have imagined that the United States would be as slow as it has been to respond to what has become a grave international crisis.
International public health experts estimate that the global fight against AIDS demands at least $7 billion per year. Meanwhile, in the last 15 years combined, the United States has invested only $1.6 billion or a little over $100 million per year to fight this pandemic. In 1999, a year during which nearly five and a half million people in Africa alone were newly infected, the United States invested just $142 million, less than .001 percent, of our foreign assistance budget that year, to fight AIDS.
Too much time has been lost, and too little leadership has been demonstrated by America. President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Secretary Powell have indicated they now recognize this pandemic for what it is: a national security threat. It is time that we begin dedicating the resources that such a threat demands.
In recent months, some progress has been made in combating AIDS. Governments, foundations, and corporations have begun to pledge donations to the Global Trust Fund to fight AIDS. Drug producers have also begun to make AIDS treatment more affordable for the more than 25 million HIV-positive Africans. But much more remains to be done.
However, the activities of the Global Trust Fund should not and cannot replace our bilateral efforts to bolster the health infrastructure of the countries struggling against this pandemic. Therefore, Congress can take three important steps to bolster our bilateral efforts and invest in the health care workers and researchers needed in the affected countries.
First, Congress must provide the resources needed for increased training of public health workers on the ground.
Second, Congress must increase spending on research in Africa -- and insist that research dollars spent in these countries also go to the development of indigenous research capabilities.
And third, Congress must try to create the incentives necessary to stop the steady outflow of African doctors and nurses from these ravaged countries.
It is time to act. We have already lost two decades and tens of millions of lives to this deadly disease. We cannot afford to wait another two decades before we confront this disease with the dedication it demands.
Note: This column has been adapted from a speech Sen. Daschle delivered on the floor of the Senate, June 5, 2001.
 How to contact Sen. Thomas Daschle (D-SD)
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