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| REMARKS BY: | TOMMY G. THOMPSON, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES |
| PLACE: | Second Board Meeting of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, New York, New York |
| DATE: | April 23, 2002 |
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Chairman of the Board Dr. Chrispus Kiyonga of Uganda, vice-chair Seiji Morimoto of Japan, fellow ministers, distinguished guest
The global fund is a remarkable project, a true public-private partnership with an undeniably noble goal: to reduce illness and death caused by these infectious diseases that still are rage in countries throughout the world.
Despite recent progress in treatment and prevention, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis continue to exact an enormous toll. As you all well know, the number of cases worldwide is truly staggering - especially in developing countries.
These are diseases that know no borders in an increasingly shrinking world. From the smallest towns and largest cities around the globe, we are all touched -- our families, our friends and our neighbors.
As overwhelming as the statistics are, however, the tragedy of this disease is brought into terrible focus when you sit down face to face with a woman suffering from AIDS, see a small child who has lost both parents to AIDS, and meet with health care workers who lack the necessary tools to combat the spread of the disease.
I saw firsthand the toll this disease can exact on individuals, families, communities and nations during a trip I took earlier this month to Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana and Cote d'Ivoire. I also saw the toll these diseases are taking in this hemisphere, at a meeting I had with Caribbean health ministers this past weekend in Guyana. In these nations, infectious diseases threaten not only human welfare, but social, political and economic stability as well.
That is why the United States and President Bush are committed to providing money, time, personnel and scientific expertise to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases worldwide.
That is also why I am so pleased to be here today -- slightly less than one year after President Bush announced the United States' commitment to the global fund, we are here today to make the first series of awards.
This administration is making unprecedented investments in the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS at home and abroad. The United States never has spent more to combat this deadly disease, and we have never been more committed to making sure our resources are spent to help as many people as possible.
So far, we have committed $500 million to the global fund, including a second-round commitment of $200 million for fiscal year 2003. This is on top of the $144 million the Centers for Disease and Prevention will spend on global AIDS prevention strategies and programs.
Further, this administration has renewed and intensified our commitment to finding a vaccine for AIDS through record financial commitments at the National Institutes of Health, where researchers -- led by Dr. Tony Fauci -- are conducting groundbreaking work. Our 2003 budget request for just the international component of this research is $222 million.
Contributions to the global fund from private sources also are vital to our success. I must commend the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Winterthur (Winter-turr) Insurance and the International Olympic Committee, among other contributors, for their generous pledges. But we all have a responsibility to encourage even more private investment in the fund.
In the United States and other western countries, potent combinations of anti-HIV drugs have dramatically reduced the numbers of new AIDS cases and AIDS deaths. Moreover, they have improved the quality of life for individuals living with HIV/AIDS.
Prevention efforts in our country and abroad focus on several key areas, including changing behaviors, preventing mother-to infant transmission of HIV, and the development of treatments that women could use to protect themselves against HIV and other sexually transmitted pathogens. Several vaccine candidates have recently shown remarkable promise in tests in non-human primates.
But these advancements in treatments and -- someday -- vaccines mean little in the neediest areas of the globe if we are unable to effectively deliver these miracles of science to those who need them most.
We must continue to build the infrastructure necessary to transport drugs from the laboratories and pharmaceutical companies in the United States and Europe to the most remote areas of Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere if we are to conquer this disease. With your help, we are working to reduce this disparity in access to life-saving treatments and prevention efforts.
We have much work to do, and the United States is committed to working with each of you to take our battle to a new level. That's my pledge to you.
Thank you to each of you for your passion, which is so vital and so needed. And thank you for the privilege of being with you today.