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REMARKS BY:	DONNA E. SHALALA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
PLACE:		Cook County Hospital, Chicago, Illinois
DATE:		June 11, 1997

But she could just as easily have been referring to the Team of Big Shoulders: The Bulls.

Or, the historic Dream of Big Shoulders: Embodied in Dr. Ron Sable whose vision for this center never wavered.

Or, perhaps even, the Spirit of Big Shoulders: The hard work of Christie Hefner; representatives of Cook County Hospital and RUSH Medical Center; and all the other great leaders who have joined forces - Democrat and Republican, public and private - to help conquer one of the most important public health challenges of our time.

With courage and vision, you have given this city - and this country - a new beginning in our battle against infectious diseases.

So today, we not only break ground, we gain ground.

We break ground on a facility that will care for all the complex needs of people living with HIV. And, we aim to build a seamless system of integrated services so that no one falls through the cracks.

We build a clinic of solace and support, where a newly infected woman from Lakeview or Woodlawn will come for medicine, treatment and comfort.

We build a center of research, where patients from all over Cook County will be part of the latest clinical trials and studies, and find out about the most sophisticated cutting-edge treatments.

We build a hub of prevention so that outreach workers will fan out to Humboldt Park and Chatham; Rogers Park and Englewood; and to every community to ensure that individuals who are at-risk can get out of risk.

And, most important, we build a place open to all: To every neighborhood, every family, and every single person in need - not just those who can afford it.

I am proud that our Department was able to contribute funding to build this center. But, this is a project borne from the fertile soil of public and private partnerships. In its scope and its vision, it will be the first of its kind not just in Chicago, but around the world. And, it will be the wave of the future - a future grounded in hope and measured by results.

Results that many of you have been working for since this epidemic entered our lives in the 1980's. And results, whose seeds were planted before the Clinton Administration became fully engaged in this struggle in 1993.

Throughout those early puzzling years of the epidemic, it was the activists, the scientists and the foundations who pushed ahead and set the course.

Now, under the President's leadership, we have an administration that is a true partner in this struggle - a federal government pulling it's weight, doing it's part. We are really listening to the scientists and the other experts, listening not only to your words of support, but also to your expressions of frustration. And, it's paying off.

Today we have three new protease inhibitors that are extending and improving the lives of people with HIV and AIDS. Today we have "Respect Yourself, Protect Yourself" a public education campaign that speaks frankly to young adults about the importance of protecting themselves against AIDS. Today, we are helping pregnant women prevent the perinatal transmission of HIV to their babies.

We have increased spending for the Ryan White Care Act from 385 million to a full one billion - including a tripling of the resources needed to get expensive new drugs like protease inhibitors to citizens who need them. We're also looking for ways to use Medicaid and other programs to help give people living with HIV earlier access to promising drugs and life-saving care.

Last year, I went to the international AIDS conference in Vancouver to announce a 100 million dollar commitment to research on a topical microbicide. And, last month, President Clinton announced a major goal: He said that we would dedicate ourselves to finding a vaccine for AIDS within ten years.

And we will not rest until we do.

Because even as we make progress in fighting the tragedy of AIDS, even as protease inhibitors bring us new hope that people infected with HIV can live longer and healthier lives than we ever thought possible, and, even as science brings us ever closer to unlocking the mystery of the virus and possibly to a cure.

Every day, we see reminders that this battle is far from over - and that we can not be complacent.

Not for one second.

Not when there are about 23,000 people infected with HIV in Chicago alone - and over half of them don't even know it. Not when over 85 percent of those infected in Cook County are people of color. And, not when the cases of AIDS increased by 6 percent in Cook County in 1995.

And, that's why we cannot retreat from our two most important responsibilities: Our responsibility to ensure that as science achieves breakthroughs, those breakthroughs are placed firmly in the grasp of every citizen who needs them. And, our responsibility to prevent HIV infection from ever happening in the first place.

Because, there is no question about it: it is cheaper, and far less painful, to prevent disease than it is to treat it. So until there is a vaccine, our first priority has been - and must always be - prevention. For all of these reasons, this center will be the place where hope begins.

But, as the Chicago Bulls know so well, great teams win by playing as one. And, it is going to take all of us - government and private sector, black and white, gay and straight, male and female to finally reach our goal of easing the suffering caused by HIV, and to finally conquer the disease.

When the First Lady talked about being "tough on the outside but with a heart of gold underneath," she was really talking about every one of us; about the need to raise our armor of protection against AIDS, and to do it with cooperation, compassion and dignity.

Now, I want to introduce somebody who has shown us the face of that kind of courage and commitment. Someone who has taught us the most important lesson of AIDS - never give up.

Ever since she was diagnosed with HIV at 23, this woman has been waging a public battle to educate young people about AIDS, . Rae Lewis Thornton.