Thomas Daschle: “Every December first since 1988, World AIDS Day has been a day dedicated to sending messages of compassion, hope…”

“Every December first since 1988, World AIDS Day has been a day dedicated to sending messages of compassion, hope, solidarity, and understanding. Commemorating this day is a small but important gesture, and it is the least we can do in the face of the worst pandemic mankind has ever known. Yesterday, UNAIDS and the World Health Organization released a joint report that illustrates the enormity of the AIDS pandemic. The numbers are so staggering that they are almost incomprehensible. There are now 40 million people living with AIDS. Two point seven million of them are children. In the past year, there have been 5 million new HIV infections and 3 million AIDS deaths. Many countries are seeing their future--embodied in their young people--ravaged by this disease. People under the age of 25 represent half of all new HIV infection cases, and there are now 10 million people between the ages of 15 and 24 living with HIV/AIDS. Every minute, five more young people are infected with HIV. As I have argued before, this is not just a humanitarian issue, it is also an economic and national security issue. The International Labor Organization reports that by 2020, AIDS will reduce national workforces so much that countries with the highest rates of prevalence will see their GDPs drop by as much as 20 percent in the next 20 years.”