Political Quotes

“I rise to discuss critically important legislation that I am introducing today along with Senator Clinton to address the internatinal crises of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. The threats of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria are not strictly American problems, they ignore national borders, threatening the entire world. Together, these three diseases cause over 300 million illnesses and five million death each year. We are all aware of the chilling global impact of HIV/AIDS, 22 million have already died worldwide and more than three million in the last year alone. Sixty million are currently infected with HIV, a number that increases by 15,000 each day. In 2000, 2.4 million individuals died in Africa alone. Tuberculosis and malaria are also ravaging the developing world. Eight million people are infected with tuberculosis each year; over two million of whom die. There are over 400 million clinical cases of malaria diagnosed each year, resulting in over one million deaths. Over 700,000 of those who die each year are children. Malaria is endemic to 101 countries and territories. Not only do these three diseases produce over 50 percent of the deaths due to infectious diseases each year, but they also have complex disease patterns that result in them facilitating each other's spread. By weakening the immune system, infection with HIV increases susceptibility to both tuberculosis and malaria.”