Political Quotes

“I want to very briefly, before bringing us formally an end to this week, address an issue that sits on the back burner all too often. It is an issue that affects mankind globally in a very direct way, in a moral sense. It is the HIV/AIDS virus. I speak today because on Tuesday of this week, UNAIDS released a comprehensive report on the spread of global HIV/AIDS. This little, tiny virus, which people knew nothing about 23 years ago, has killed over 23 million people. The sobering statistics that were released this week are grim. Last year, the number of newly infected victims reached an all-time high of 5 million. The number of people living with this little virus has gone up in nearly every region of the world. The numbers have increased. The UNAIDS chief told the Associated Press: The virus is running faster than all of us. Every 14 seconds a child is orphaned by AIDS. According to the U.N. report: An estimated 15 million children under the age of 18 worldwide have lost one or both parents to AIDS. In Swaziland and in Botswana, over a third of the population, one in three people, has the HIV virus. One-third of the country, if not treated, will end up dying from a terrible, a painful, and an entirely preventable disease. One out of three people in Swaziland and Botswana, these are staggering numbers. It is hard to comprehend. When you hear the statistics, it is hard to relate them to real people on the ground.”