Date: Tuesday, Dec. 1, 1998
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: HHS Press Office (202) 690-6343

SECRETARY SHALALA'S STATEMENT ON WORLD AIDS DAY

HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala issued the following statement as she arrived today at Ben Gurion Airport, Israel, where she will attend an international conference on women's health:

"As we commemorate World AIDS Day, we acknowledge the increasingly tragic toll AIDS is taking across the globe. This disease knows no country, crosses every border, and strikes men, women and children of every nation, every age, every culture.

"This is a day to pause and reflect on the progress we've made, and on the long road we must still travel. It is a day to rededicate ourselves to preventing new infections, improving treatment for the sick, and to one day find a vaccine and cure.

"Just days ago, the United Nations estimated that more than 33 million people worldwide are living with the AIDS virus, the highest estimate ever. While we have learned much about drug therapies that can arrest the progress of the disease and prevent transmission from mother to infant, these life- saving drugs are not widely available around the world.

"AIDS is taking men and women in the prime of life, too often leaving orphaned children in the care of over-burdened relatives and friends around the globe. Today in Washington D.C., President Clinton will announce an historic increase in funding at the National Institutes of Health to prevent and treat HIV-AIDS around the world, including a 33 percent increase over last year's funding to search for an AIDS vaccine. And, he will announce an emergency grant program from USAID to help support AIDS orphans around the world.

"President Clinton has committed unprecedented resources to fighting this epidemic at home and abroad. Funding for all AIDS programs has risen 110 percent since he took office, and HHS will spend nearly $7.7 billion in 1999 for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and research. Nearly 20 years after the world first heard the name of this terrible disease, we are locked in a struggle to defeat it. We pledge to you on this World AIDS Day that we will not give up the fight."