Political Quotes

“each day, 16,000 more people become infected with HIV/AIDS. Nowhere is this staggering figure more apparent than sub-Saharan Africa, where 25 million people are HIV positive. Last year alone, 2.4 million sub-Saharan Africans died of HIV/AIDS. One particular group deserves our particular attention and assistance due to the disproportionate burden that they have borne, that is, the women of sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan African women are now the fastest growing HIV population in Africa. They constitute 55 percent of all adult HIV infections in the entire region. Most disturbing, sub-Saharan African women are becoming infected at earlier ages than their male counterparts. Teenage girls are infected at a rate five to six times greater than their male counterparts. Of course, the escalation of HIV/AIDS among sub-Saharan African women has a direct and important impact upon the most vulnerable population in the sub-Saharan region, its impact on children. Two-thirds of the 500,000 orphaned children in Africa lost parents to HIV/AIDS. Over 30 percent of children born to HIV positive women will develop pediatric AIDS. I have personally witnessed the orphanages overflowing with children who have lost parents to this disease, and it is both astonishing and heart-wrenching.”