Jon L. Christensen: “I too recently had the privilege of attending the 14th International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain. I want to…”

“I too recently had the privilege of attending the 14th International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain. I want to thank the House leadership for making it possible for me to join the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee). AIDS experts, activists and government representatives from all over the world assembled to share their invaluable knowledge and expertise in fighting the global HIV/AIDS pandemic and issuing a call to action. This is a critically important conference happening at a very important time. UNAIDS and the World Health Organization recently released an updated report of where we are today. The most important thing to realize is that we are still at the beginning, the beginning of this terrible scourge. Yet there are already over 40 million people estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS around the world today and an estimated 28 million who have died. At this incipient stage of the pandemic, there are already 13.4 million children orphaned by this disease. More than a third of those living with HIV and AIDS are under the age of 25. There are 5 million new infections each year, 6,000 new every day; and young people ages 15 to 24 account for half of all new infections. Even in developed nations such as the United States, young people continue to represent half of all new infections; and yet this is only the beginning.”