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REMARKS BY: TOMMY G. THOMPSON, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES PLACE: Kaiser Family Foundation DATE: June 5, 2001
It's a pleasure to be with you and to see so many people who are committed to fighting, and winning, the war against AIDS - a disease that still is killing far too many of our friends, neighbors and family members.
As many of you know, I served for 14 years as governor of Wisconsin and am now a cabinet secretary. But I never forget that I'm from the town of Elroy, Wisconsin. Elroy is a town of about 1,500. I always say that in Elroy, you can dial the wrong number and still end up talking for a half an hour.
I grew up there working in my dad's grocery store, where I got to know just about everybody in town.
When you grow up in an environment like that, you're touched personally when one of your neighbors is afflicted with an illness or disease. You see firsthand the cost it extracts from the person afflicted, from his or her family and from the community at large.
So when we talk about fighting a modern day disease like H-I-V/AIDS and discuss huge dollar amounts and statistical data, it's always in my mind that we're talking about real people - people with loved ones - people with names and hopes and dreams. That's what makes marking the 20th year of AIDS such a painful commemoration.
That pain is deepened by the knowledge of what we have lost. The talents and the lives of those who have died. They are people we have known . people we have loved . people who have contributed greatly to our communities. Their memory drives us and their legacy inspires us to end the tragedy of this disease.
It is nearly impossible to minimize just how deeply this disease has touched the soul of America. As you know:
The numbers are truly staggering, and their message is inescapable: Twenty years after AIDS came to light in America, we're still living with this horrible disease. When the crisis first emerged, it was big news, it was on everyone's mind. Today, sometimes it seems as though it's become part of the landscape.
But the danger of HIV and AIDS is not gone. The worst mistake we can make is to let our guard down. For AIDS is still a wretched killer and too many lives are still at stake.
Nowhere is that presented more clearly than in a Centers for Disease Control report released last week. It showed that 4.4 percent of young gay men are becoming infected with HIV each year, a pace not seen for a decade.
(Hispanic #s)
Most alarmingly, the incidence among young minority gay men is exceptionally high - 14 percent of Hispanics are infected, and more than 30 percent of African Americans are infected. That is a level that approaches, and in some cases exceeds, the level that is found in sub-Saharan Africa . where the epidemic is at its worst.
It is clear that this disease is spreading to and devastating minority communities. African Americans contract more than half of all new HIV cases in the United States even though they account for only about 13 percent of the population.
What once was viewed 20 years ago as a disease for gay white males is being contracted by far too many Americans regardless of race, gender and sexual orientation.
And right now, HIV is wreaking its greatest havoc among minorities, particularly African American men. And these men are proving to be particularly hard to reach because of how this disease is perceived in the African American community as well as the lack of an effective infrastructure for getting educational and health care resources to those who need it.
AIDS does not discriminate, and neither must we as a society in tackling AIDS.
My department is not going to ignore where this epidemic is moving. We know where HIV is hitting hardest and we are committing unprecedented resources and organizational efforts to stop it.
Make no mistake, this administration is making substantial financial investments in the battle against AIDS - but that is only part of the answer. As the AIDS experts remind us, government cannot tackle this problem alone - it must be done in partnership with the community, particularly when it comes to building an infrastructure by which help can reach those who need it.
We at the Department of Health and Human Services are renewing our commitment to work with states, local governments, charities, faith-based organizations and those communities who are hardest hit by HIV.
We will reach out to you in the audience, the people who best understand what programs work and how best to fight HIV at the grass roots level. We will reach out to community leaders, especially those in the minority community, to help us spread the message of prevention and treatment. We're already forging effective partnerships through programs like the Leadership Campaign on AIDS, which is bringing together the expertise and resources of HHS with leaders, clergy and health care professionals in minority neighborhoods.
And we must continue to work together in the minority community and in society as a whole to remove the stigma associated with HIV. If we don't, we never will be able to help those who are hardest to reach - the two-thirds of those Americans with HIV who are not receiving care.
Of course, AIDS is not simply an American issue. President Bush has pledged an additional $200 million next year to a global fund that will combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. This funding is in addition to the more than $480 million already committed on the international front.
Nowhere is the problem more severe than sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to an estimated 22 million of the 35 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. I will go to Africa this year to see the problem firsthand and learn how we can best help deliver care in the most adversely affected nations. America must lead in curtailing the spread of AIDS globally, forging a Marshall Plan for assisting those developing nations devastated by this disease.
But our first front in the battle against AIDS remains here at home, in America. And this commitment is certainly reflected in the investments we are making in fighting HIV and AIDS. For example:
And, $2.5 billion of our investment will go to the National Institutes of Health for HIV/AIDS research. That's an increase of $258 million . or 12 percent . over the current fiscal year.
What gives me such hope on this day of such a sad commemoration is the investment we're making in AIDS vaccine research - $357 million, a 27 percent increase.
Yes, too many people have died of AIDS. Yes, too many people continue to contract this devastating disease. Yes, there's reason for worry.
But, in this age of medical miracles, there truly is reason for hope. Our scientists at the National Institutes of Health are doing truly groundbreaking research into an array of diseases from cancer to Alzheimer's to AIDS.
And, while we're not there yet, NIH scientists tell me we are making remarkable progress toward finding a vaccine. Now is the right time to make an aggressive push to get that vaccine. It is on the horizon, and I cannot wait for the day when we can proudly announce that a vaccine has been discovered. I hope each of you will join me on that day.
Still, we have seen some dramatic breakthroughs in AIDS research in recent years, breakthroughs that have helped hundreds of thousands of people live longer, more comfortable lives. Protease inhibitors, for example, have reduced deaths in some sectors of the AIDS community in the United States by 25 percent - the first decline ever.
We continue to invest billions of dollars for the care of those who have HIV. And we are committed to working to ensure that those services are delivered as efficiently as possible to those who need them.
It is often easy, when you are talking about $10.2 billion worth of programs and 40,000 new HIV cases each year, to forget that each of those numbers represents a person.
Budget outlays or demographic charts help define practical action, but they don't get to the heart of the human cost of AIDS. The fight against AIDS is about people we know, people with faces and names.
For their sake, we can't quit.
It's been 20 years and we're still living with AIDS. Don't fall asleep America. We must remain on the offensive in the war against HIV and AIDS. We must take the necessary precautions to prevent the contraction and spread of HIV. And we must reach out and warn those most vulnerable.
We have much work to do yet, and the Department of Health and Human Services and this administration are committed to taking our work against AIDS to a new level. That's my pledge to you.
Thank you for your courage and your passion, which are so vital and so needed. And thank you for the privilege of being with you today. God bless you and our country.