COLEMAN RAISES AWARENESS
ABOUT WORLD AIDS DAY
New HIV/AIDS legislation looks to improve health care infrastructure deficiencies in Africa
Washington, D.C. - Senator Coleman today expressed his deep commitment to U.S. involvement in the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and urged the American people to participate in the observance of World AIDS Day on December 1st. Since its establishment by the World Health Organization in 1988, World AIDS Day seeks to focus the world on the global threat of HIV/AIDS. In the past year alone 3 million people have died due to the HIV/AIDS virus and this number has continued to rise for a quarter of a century. On World AIDS Day participants wear a red ribbon, a fifteen-year-old symbol for HIV/AIDS, signifying that a global effort can stop the spread and prejudices of HIV/AIDS.
"Today we are witnessing the mass spread of a deadly epidemic that is devastating the lives of over 40 million people. On this day, especially, we must recognize the duty we have in aiding the countries whose population continues to vanish under the grip of HIV/AIDS," Coleman said. "Sub-Saharan Africa is home to almost two-thirds of those suffering, yet it only possesses 3 percent of the world's health workers. Frankly, the health care infrastructure in the areas plagued by this epidemic is simply not equipped to deal with HIV/AIDS and represents a major constraint on the ability to fight the disease in the long term. It is critical to ensure that our efforts to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa are sustainable over the long haul by strengthening the health care systems of these countries, thereby providing them with the indigenous capacity to continue this fight."
Coleman traveled to countries in Africa in 2003 to learn how the U.S. could best respond to the HIV/AIDS challenge there. Coleman is a major supporter of robust funding for global HIV/AIDS programs and has cosponsored numerous amendments to increase funding levels for these programs, ranging from prevention to treatment of this debilitating virus.
Coleman's most recent HIV/AIDS legislation, the bipartisan African Health Capacity Investment Act (S. 3775), will work to improve dangerous and sub-standard working conditions, and bolster the number of trained physicians, nurses and health workers staffing hospitals with HIV/AIDS patients. It will also develop better management and accounting practices and boost the productivity and workforce distribution. Coleman's legislation, which will be re-introduced in 2007, will work to provide a comprehensive approach to the health care management systems in areas like Sub-Saharan Africa that are currently ill prepared to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
"Sustainable efforts to fight HIV/AIDS and save lives in Africa require a focus on bolstering the health systems in the region, as well as more attention from Congress in promoting this end. I have seen the harrowing reality of this epidemic and I am proud to sponsor legislation that will strengthen our efforts to defeat this terrible disease," Coleman said
