Political Quotes

“we all strongly support this bill as a needed and overdue national commitment. AIDS is a global crisis which threatens the security of every government in every nation, even including the United States. It has destroyed societies, and it will destabilize democratic governments. According to UNAIDS, nearly 22 million people have lost their lives and over 36 million people today are living with HIV and AIDS. Fewer than 2 percent of them have access to life-prolonging therapies or basic treatment. That is the problem. And we are the only ones with the resources to really do something about it. The number of new infections of HIV is estimated at 15,000 people a day, and it is growing. In Africa, which has 70 percent of the AIDS cases, 22 million people are living with this disease. In some countries, 20 percent or more are infected; and in a number of countries that recently visited in Africa, 34 percent of women of childbearing age are infected. That means that an estimated 600,000 African children become infected with AIDS every single year as a result of mother-to-child transmission either at birth or through breast feeding. The deaths of parents with HIV/AIDS will result in 40 million orphans this decade alone. They have nowhere to go. They do not inherit anything. The boys go in to gangs, the girls too often into sexual slavery or some form of servitude.”