Dianne Feinstein: “I thank the President for this Executive order. It is the right thing to do and it is a major help. I very much hope…”

“I thank the President for this Executive order. It is the right thing to do and it is a major help. I very much hope that the African countries will make use of this Executive order and acquire the necessary pharmaceuticals that we here in this country know can extend the lives and well-being of people. Almost 1 year ago, on May 11, the World Health Organization declared that HIV/AIDS is now the world's most deadly infectious disease. As of December of last year, the AIDS Epidemic Update, published by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, U.N. AIDS, and the World Health Organization, notes the following: As the 20th century draws to a close, some 33.6 million men and women worldwide face a future dominated by a fatal disease, unknown just a few decades ago. According to new estimates from the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization, 32.4 million adults and 1.2 million children will be living with HIV by the end of 1999. Sub-Saharan Africa bears the brunt of the HIV/AIDS with close to 70 percent of the global total of HIV positive people. Most will die in the next 10 years, joining the 13.7 million Africans who have already died, and leaving behind shattered families and crippled prospects for development. Indeed, the hardest hit African companies face infection rates in excess of 22 percent--that is 22 million people--an overall rate of infection among adults in sub-Saharan Africa eight times the rate of infection worldwide.”