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Guest Commentary March 21, 2002
Next Step in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS
The Honorable Joseph Biden
In January of 2000 the National Intelligence Council released a National Intelligence Estimate entitled "The Global Infectious Disease Threat and its Implications for the United States." The report stated that "the severe social and economic impact of infectious diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS, and the infiltration of these diseases into the ruling political and military elites and middle classes of developing countries are likely to intensify the struggle for political power to control scarce state resources. This will hamper the development of a civil society and other underpinnings of democracy and will increase pressure on democratic transitions in regions such as the FSU [former Soviet Union] and Sub-Saharan Africa where the infectious disease burden will add to economic misery and political polarization."
On February 13 of this year I chaired a hearing on the future of America's bilateral and multilateral response to the epidemic. What I learned was both encouraging and discouraging. First, the bad news. The disease continues to spread. Last year, five million people were infected with HIV/AIDS, bringing the total number of people with the disease to 40 million. There are more AIDS orphans than ever before, over 10.4 million, and that number is expected to more than double in the next 8 years as more and more adults fall ill and die.
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In some parts of the world, women are becoming infected at rates comparable to men. This change in the infection pattern is tragic not only because the increase is a reflection of women and girls' inability to say no, in many instances, to unwanted sexual advances, but also because the more women who are infected, the greater the number of babies there are who are liable to contract HIV during birth or from drinking their infected mother's breast milk.
The good news is that the international community is beginning not only to recognize the need for more action, it is beginning to take more action. We are beginning to go beyond rhetoric towards concrete steps. We have established Global Funds for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The U.S. Government has increased the amount of spending on bilateral programs. The problem is that we have not yet gone far enough. Despite our efforts to date, the problem continues to grow.
There are no easy solutions. I will not say that I have a magic formula for stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS. We must recognize, however, that while the problem is not going away any time soon, there are some steps we can take immediately and in the long-term that will help mitigate the effects of the disease and eventually stop it in its tracks.
A serious commitment is required. A lot of times when we talk about commitment in this chamber we are talking about 6 to 18 months. I am talking about a commitment of years. Not 2 years. Not 3 years. Start thinking in terms of a decade or more. According to the UN, studies of middle and low-income countries where interventions have slowed the spread of the disease, we need to spend $7 to $10 billion annually on treatment, care and support in the developing world for the next 10 years if we are to change current trends.
The UN estimates that if we are going to bring HIV infection rates down, by the year 2005 the international community is going to have to scale up spending to $9.2 billion. That money does not include funds for improving the health and education infrastructure in developing countries. It only covers prevention care and support programs. 2001 expenditures, according to this same report were only $1.8 billion.
We have a long way to go. And we will have to readjust our mind-sets such that we are prepared to stay the course financially for a long time to come, or nothing we do is going to have a lasting impact. ...
I hope that Congress and the Administration can work together to reinvigorate and enhance current efforts to stem the tide of HIV/AIDS infection and care for and support those with the disease. Failure to do so will mean the death of an entire generation of people. That is much too steep a price to pay.
Joseph Biden, a Democrat, is a U.S. Senator from Delaware. The above commentary has been adapted from a speech Sen. Biden delivered on the floor of the Senate, March 21, 2002. To contact him, Click Here.
The above column has been distributed by PoliticsOL.com.
