Elijah Cummings: “today I rise to discuss one of the most challenging and life-threatening public health issues facing the global…”

“today I rise to discuss one of the most challenging and life-threatening public health issues facing the global community, HIV infection and AIDS. I will also highlight significant actions our government and fellow Americans have taken to combat this threat. HIV/AIDS is now the world's deadliest disease with more than 40 million persons infected worldwide. Not surprisingly, the pandemic affects the most vulnerable citizens of our global community. In fact, nearly 95 percent of infected persons live in the developing countries, with sub-Saharan Africa being the hardest hit of any other region in the world. The statistics are startling. New HIV infections in Africa have numbered more than 1.4 million each year since 1991. That is an average of more than 3,800 new HIV/AIDS infections per day. Nearly 6,000 will die within this same time frame. Mr. Speaker, 23.3 million adults and children are infected with the HIV virus in the region, which has about 10 percent of the world's population, but nearly 70 percent of the worldwide total of infected people. Life expectancy in these nations has been reduced by the disease to between 22 and 40 years. Some sub-Saharan African countries could lose as much as a third of their adult population by 2010, and 16 African countries have an HIV infection rate of more than 10 percent.”