Patrick Leahy: “The amount we expect to provide in 2002 and 2003 to combat AIDS, which threatens the lives of each of the world's 6…”

“The amount we expect to provide in 2002 and 2003 to combat AIDS, which threatens the lives of each of the world's 6 billion people--is less than what my own State of Vermont, with a population of only 600,000 people, will spend on health care during that same period. So while the United States is doing more than ever to combat AIDS, and we can point to successes in several countries--Uganda, Thailand and Brazil, for example, the reality is that the AIDS pandemic is out of control. It is spreading faster, not slower. 40 million people are infected. Almost nobody is receiving treatment. 25 million people have died from AIDS-related causes, and at the current rate that number is expected to exceed 65 million by the year 2020. By any measure, AIDS is a plague of biblical proportions.”