Fighting HIV/AIDS: A Global Challenge

Good morning. Mr. President reverend clergy members of the Howard University family honored guests ladies and gentlemen. My name is Patrick Swygert and it is my privilege to serve as president of Howard University and it's my privilege to welcome you this morning to this very important and historic occasion. We had Howard University feel privileged to serve as the host site for this very important dialogue at Howard University. We are fully engaged in the fight against AIDS whether it be education whether it be research or tending to the needs of those who are wrestling with this disease. The National Minority AIDS education and training center headquartered at the hospital for some time now.

And in addition since 1990 the Howard University Hospital has provided an array or specialized services. Indeed we are engaged. We have been engaged and we will continue to be engaged. It's now my privilege to welcome the Most Reverend Winston's and new Gournay archbishop of Cape Town Church of the province of Southern Africa. Mr. President distinguished guests and friends. It is a great joy and a distinctive honor for all of us to be here on this fast White House interfaith HIV summit. I was therefore in the first instance I like to express our gratitude

to you Mr. President for inviting us and congratulate you on this very commendable initiative. Faith communities are custodians of moral values and primary care gave us for people living with AIDS. This coming together on this summit has convinced me more than ever that twin needs to put a human face to this pandemic. We need to hear the crisis in many households in Africa that are headed by children in their late teens. The anguish of 13 year old boys and girls in this title well all have bedded both parents and are bracing themselves for the deaths. Off they are taught lost siblings.

The emotional agony of a dying woman often unwittingly infected by an unfaithful pup. Now Cournos thought she has passed a death sentence on her baby. The anxiety of a mother. Who has lost ten daughters and now has to look after 35 grand children the brave and courageous witness of people living with AIDS. It's like a breach at my level. Who was with us here. Whose cry is help me live my life and die with dignity while this says to me Mr. President is that we need to deepen our ministry of compassion and caring for it has been proven that people will live with AIDS thrive and live a better

quality of life when to surround it with human support and tender loving K when needed to generate capacity and skills within our local communities in caregiving for people with a step families and millions of AIDS orphans will need to increase our efforts in breaking the silence and stigma attached to HIV AIDS. Secondly Mr. President we need to campaign more vigorously fought off fought up medicine to poor communities. Interestingly the World Health Organization points out the thought contrary to popular belief health. Does not follow wealth. And nation needs a healthy productive population in order to attain wealthy

nation status. This against the background of globalization and the economic interdependence of the world's nations is as good an achievement as any for the developed world to find innovative solutions to making a fort up on medicines available to. They are poor counterparts. South Africa for instance which is my country and liten self interest no doubt has the highest incidence of tuberculosis in the world and the rise in HIV cases has contributed to the increase in drug resistant strains. Yet. I am a short thoughtless Sache in this area is the M.O. simply because there is no profit for the pharmaceutical companies to become involved. This is understandable. They are not charity organizations.

They have to bow down to the wishes of shareholders. But I firmly believe that with the likes of Tibbett told us he is an HIV related drugs. There are solutions solutions that lie within business and government cooperation and cross subsidised buckets. We need to find creative ways to bridge the gulf between human needs scientific research and market returns. One other possible way in what way the creation of a million vaccine fund to provide affordable mats into the poor. Sadly HIV AIDS is intrinsically bound with poverty. The relationship between poverty and HIV AIDS is bi directional. While poverty is a factor in HIV transmission and

exacerbates its impact. HIV intensifies the level of poverty. Which in turn. Has a disproportionate effect. On women gals and the aged. We must never forget the thought people are made poor through inequity in equitable social economic structures when needed that will to intensify our efforts for the consolation. Often Papel and odious steps which And and and for which I know Mr. President you are very much Kynan we need a transparent and good governance to ensure that the money is rerouted from debt repayment. I use to alleviate the inhuman conditions that prevail among the poor such as providing health care sanitation clean water

for education and shelter having clean the slate to the cancellation of debt when need to embark on a massive recovery plan for Africa similar to the highly successful Marshall Plan which brought up post-war Europe from the brink of collapse Sisodia and show Honus hailing and sustainable growth and development in all this. Our actions would reflect economic reality morality and justice. Lastly Mr. President Archbishop Desmond Tutu my immediate predecessor sat in a video which we saw yesterday when need to declare a holy war against HIV AIDS in any wall. Everyone needs a rallying point.

Wouldn't be nice Mr. President if you were able to call all the nations of the world to rally together under the banner of the family of God for God's families I thank you. You have to know I have the pleasure to do so myself. My. I. My name is Belinda Dunn I'm from the great city of Boston Massachusetts. And I am a person that is living with AIDS more than that

I am the face of AIDS today and the United States and other countries. I am an African American woman an epidemic that is becoming more and more black more and more female every single day. I am a recovering drug user and the epidemic that is becoming more and more a part of why this AIDS epidemic grows. I am a poor woman in America and this disease is on poor communities and countries throughout Africa Asia the Caribbean and every corner of this planet. I am also a person that is living with hepatitis C. another life threatening infection that impacts millions of America Americans and people in other countries. I am so grateful to be here today. To be alive.

Because I have access to treatment. This is not happening. And the other countries because of the programs at the right way. Iraq has in the state of Massachusetts and organizations like the AIDS Action Committee the woman of color AIDS Council I have been able to be a full well rounded person. I have a roof over my head. I have a job. I am able to live life to its fullest each and every day. That doesnt happen every place. The work did I do at the National Association of People with AIDS is most appealing because we look at all people living with this disease no matter of race creed color city state or country that they are from. I'm very proud of the work of the National Association

for many people living with HIV in the United States. If we have not learned anything in the last 20 years that I experience in working in this epidemic is that we have learned that people with HIV are part of the solution and not a part of the problem. We must be at the table when decisions are being made for us. You cannot make a decision for me. I happen to be a part of that and it will change if we add voices are heard. You must ask just a question shut up and listen then you can do something about it. I've been living with HIV for a very long time and have been fighting for my life almost near death twice. But it is my hope.

That there will soon be a vaccine cure or the end of new infections and our children won't have to be infected by this disease. It is because of the Clinton administration and the clock is ticking on the administration and you have begun. I am so afraid of war our the AIDS movement is going to go from here. He has lit a light that can never go out. I just want to acknowledge one other person before I introduce the president. It is too late now. Sandy Thurman I have to say Sandy that I was one of five women in the front row in

Pasadena when you came out to make your first speech and we saw you come to the stage and said Oh my God she's a Barbie doll. I. I we're never going to get anything out of her because she may break one of her nails. I. Boy boy does she prove us wrong. I you Sandy and thank you for your outstanding work both here and abroad. It is with great honor and privilege on behalf of all of the people living

with HIV and AIDS. We want you to know Mr. President we want it's Halloween and I miss you. You have been a lifesaver. You are one in a million. We love you. We bless you. We appreciate you. Ladies and gentlemen I guess I will introduce you to our commander in chief. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Belinda thank you for your wonderful remarks. I'm not going anywhere I'm just going to have. To be in a different lot of work. You know. I'll still be there for you. I want you all to know this remarkable woman actually had a minor car accident yesterday and was told not to come here but she showed up anyway and that's the kind of commitment we need. Archbishop Ghani delighted to be on the podium with you in this beautiful chapel at Howard. And as you know I admired your predecessor Archbishop Tutu my friend and I can see he has a worthy successor. Your remarks were

wise and we thank you so very much for what you said. I think President Swygert for making us welcome and Howard and I would like to acknowledge a couple of people first a member of our United States Congress from Oakland California and the champion of America doing more in the global AIDS effort. Representative Barbara Lee thank you very much. I also was honored to ride over here with our former United Nations ambassador and Congressman my great friend Andrew Young. I thank him for. His. Part. And Belinda I thank you for what you said about Sandy Thurman. I knew she wasn't a Barbie doll when I pointed out that.

She had actually spent a lot of her life working in Atlanta at the grassroots with people with HIV and AIDS. And I tried to fill a lot of positions in government with people who don't often get to serve because sometimes the best qualified people to serve are the people that are out there on the front lines. And if they spend their lives on the front lines they don't have enough time to play up to the politicians so they can get these appointments. But somehow I found Sandy and she's been wonderful and I thank her and all the members of our advisory council many of whom are here today. I want to offer a special word of welcome to the distinguished religious leaders and citizens who have come here from around the world including the first lady of lawsuits. Mrs. Metallo Mrs. Seeley and we have I think 23 others

we have 23 others here from Africa alone who are here to focus on the HIV AIDS issue as part of the State Department's International visitors program. We have religious leaders here from Africa from Asia from Latin America and we thank them all for being here. Today. We have come together people from all over the world from different circumstances to ask ourselves a simple stark question whether we are prepared to do what is necessary to save millions of lives to save the lives of those who are living with HIV and AIDS and all those who might yet avoid it. How we answer will depend upon how well we work together as partners across lines of nationality faith

religion color sexual orientation. It will depend upon in equal measure our will and our wallets and it will depend upon in some places still sadly going beyond denial. I don't know whether this works when translated into French in the other languages that are here but my daughter's generation has a wonderful saying that denial is not just a river in Egypt. And. We even have to laugh you know sometimes just to keep going you know. But that also is important and I want to highlight some of the heroes in that struggle later in the United States there are millions of people involved in the struggle against HIV and AIDS. They are in clinics and community based organizations across the land

offering information and testing to those at risk. Treatment and care to nearly a million people living with HIV dignity the thousands who are dying. Churches synagogues mosques and temples here are more and more speaking out with a single clear voice about the importance of prevention as well as care. For the last few years. I have tried to put our government on the side of this fight. We created an office of AIDS research at the National Institute of Health and a White House Office of AIDS national policy. We have the first ever national AIDS strategy. We have the first biomedical research plan and we have expanded health insurance options for people with HIV and AIDS. Our overall federal funding has more than doubled over the last eight years and funding for care is up almost 400 percent help to buy drugs in this country up more than a thousand percent

as Congress comes back to work. I hope that it will ensure that. Our global and domestic programs actually receive the funding increases they are currently slated to receive this year. Thanks to people like Representative Barbara Lee as Belinda Dunn's story illustrates. Marrying our money to our intentions. Is a formula for real progress here in the United States. A formula for delivering more powerful anti HIV drugs to more Americans for helping more HIV positive pregnant women avoid passing the virus to their babies for providing better access to health care and housing for those living with HIV. It is a formula. In other words for people living longer and better lives today the mortality rate for HIV and AIDS in the United States is down more than 70 percent since 1995. The death rate for them the

infection is at its lowest rate since 1987. For those of you here from our country who have worked on this you can be justifiably proud. But we must be humbled by how very far we all have to go especially around the world. Today's reality is much worse than the worst case scenarios of just 10 years ago at the beginning of the 1990s. Health experts told us that between 15 and 20 million people would be living with HIV this year. Well the real number is 36 million. The religious leaders from around the world who are here understand that these numbers. Mean something quite stark in human terms not only for the individuals and the families but as the archbishop intimated for whole nations when the disease threatens to triple child mortality and to

reduce life expectancy by 20 years. In some African countries it is time to say that AIDS is also a moral crisis when South Africa's GDP. Listen to this. South Africa's GDP is expected to be 17 percent lower in 2010 because of AIDS. It is time to say that AIDS is an economic crisis when ten times more Africans died of AIDS last year than in all the continent's wars combined. And when the fastest growing infection rates are now in Eastern Europe and the nations of the former Soviet Union complicated in many countries by virtual breakdown of the public health systems there where nations are already struggling against great odds to build prosperity and democracy it is time to say that AIDS is also an international security crisis

once we recognize it. AIDS is all these things it becomes crystal clear that we have to use every available tool to fight it. And that the United States because we have been blessed at this particular moment in history with exceptional prosperity has an extra responsibility to take a leadership role. Many developing countries are doing remarkable things to help themselves by focusing its resources on prevention. Uganda became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to reverse its own epidemic nearly having its HIV prevalence. But in too many nations resources are simply insufficient and the gap between what people want to do and what they can afford to do is denying millions a chance to survive the onslaught. Together we must do more to close the gap.

Today our National Institutes of Health is releasing the first ever strategic plan for international AIDS research. A 100 million dollar blueprint for pursuing new research opportunities with universities in over 50 countries in Asia Africa Europe and Latin America. Our administration has also launched the life initiative that in the last two years will likely triple U.S. investment in international HIV AID efforts. That is why we fought for and one passage of the global HIV AIDS and TB relief act which authorizes additional funding for prevention care and vaccine development. And why sign an executive order to help make AIDS drugs more affordable in sub-Sahara Africa. And while we are pushing Congress to pass to respond to the archbishop's comment a vaccine tax credit and to put more resources behind the World Bank's AIDS Trust Fund. Right now it is a problem for our pharmaceutical companies because they know that while there is an enormous need for an AIDS vaccine

the people who need it the worst are the least able to pay for it. And we know that research is very expensive. So the best way we can help get the research done we get the medicine and we'll worry about how to get it out there. We can do that we have to get the breakthrough first is to in effect give these companies a tax credit for the research they do so that the taxpayers share a hefty portion of the costs. And I hope and pray that the Congress will agree to adopt that and when they come back in just a few days or early next year at the very latest. The Peace Corps is trying one of its every one of its 2400 volunteers in Africa every one of them as prevention counselors. And the issue of HIV and AIDS in developing countries was put on the agenda this year for the annual G-8 summit. I also made it important part of our relationship with the European Union. And I have worked hard as the archbishop said for debt relief and for mobilizing billions of

dollars for the fight against AIDS. And finally that is why the United States placed HIV and AIDS squarely before both the U.N. Security Council and the United Nations Millennium Summit. This effort is now on the international agenda. We've got a long way to go. But those of you who worked hard to put it on the world's agenda should also know that you have succeeded. And we're only going to go forward not backward now. Now despite these efforts we all know a lot more is needed much much more is needed to make drugs for AIDS and related infectious diseases more affordable and accessible everywhere. I told you just in the United States with all of our wealth we increased funding to help people buy drugs here in this country by a thousand percent tenfold in eight years. And we didn't get a tenfold increase in drugs because of the increase in the costs.

So we know that we have to do more to help developing nations in this area. We know that more is needed to ensure that countries have the health care infrastructure needed to effectively deliver the drugs and the treatment. As I said a moment ago one of the things that really concerns me about the rising rates in some of the nations of the former Soviet Union is that they are accompanied by a real deterioration in the public health systems system which wants to work under a very different social and political structure and have not yet been replaced by the kind of grassroots community networks that we see in a lot of other developing countries that were not part of a totalitarian system before. And it's something we have to work very very hard on. But let's not forget so many of you have proved even limited resources well used can go a long way. And let's all remember

that for all their differences the fight against AIDS here in the United States and the fight abroad have much in common. To begin we need to understand that patterns of infection and us now actually mirror those found elsewhere with the burden falling most heavily on women young people poor people and people of color that makes our challenges more alike than different both practically and morally. It means we must be more vigilant both in targeting our resources and in overcoming prejudice. Last August in Nigeria I was honored to meet John Beck way. He was sitting here on the front row but his daughter started crying and he took her out which is a great expression of family values. Because he knew I was going to introduce him and he took care of his child anyway. At an event during my trip. He told the story of his great love for his wife.

Whom he married even though she was HIV positive and family and friends disapproved. He told how he pleaded with and lobbied with. His pastor to persuade him that it was the morally right thing to do. He talked about how when he married his wife became pregnant and he became HIV positive. And then he struggled to hold a job in the face of great prejudice. He told us how he saved enough money somehow for the drugs that allowed his baby to be born without the virus. And when he told this story the president of Nigeria President Obasanjo. And his wife stood on the stage and they embraced John and his wife. I'm told the image had an electrifying impact all over Nigeria on

how people should think about and deal with people with AIDS. As I said John and his daughter just walked out. But his wife is here and I'd like to ask her to stand up and give her anything. There they are. Thank you John with that kind of timing I think you have a future in politics. Now let me say something very serious. The second thing we have to do is remember that AIDS everywhere is still 100 percent preventable. Prevention

is the most effective tool in our arsenal. No matter the cultural or religious factors to be overcome. Families must talk about the facts of life before too many more learn the facts of death. Meeting both the challenges overcoming stigma and overcoming silence will be impossible without the moral leadership that in so many places only religious leaders like those who are here today can provide. In our tradition it has been said that AIDS is an epidemic of biblical proportions. Maybe that refers to the sheer geographic scope or perhaps the numbers of people are the enormous scale of suffering but I think it also is an apt phrase because it implies. That there is a required moral response.

And the New Testament of the Christian Bible that says that when we bear one another's burdens we fulfill the Law of God. So I ask you. To go forth here. Remembering that a happy heart is good medicine to do not grow weary in doing this. Know that the sequencing of the human genome will dramatically hasten the day when we will find a medical cure. But in the meanwhile there are millions in these tens and tens of millions of people whose lives are riding on our common efforts. We can do this if we do it together. Thank you and God bless you all. Your