Lee Calls for a Renewed Focus to Fight HIV/AIDS

Congresswoman Barbara Lee said, “As we recognize World AIDS Day, we must all recommit ourselves – as a global community – to stamping out HIV/AIDS from the face of the earth.” She said the release of the 2010 Global Report by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS highlights some progress because, “more people are on treatment, there are fewer new infections and there were fewer deaths in 2009. The trend lines around the world are encouraging.” Despite the progress Lee urged continued vigilance when she said, “last year 1.8 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses, while 2.6 million people became newly infected – leading to an increase in the number of people living with HIV to approximately 33.3 million. We must increase our funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.” “I also welcome the results of a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health indicating that a widely available, two drug combination pill – taken once a day – can substantially reduce the risk of HIV transmission among men who have sex with men,” Lee said. “While additional research is necessary to validate the study’s findings, particularly for use within other high risk groups, it is clear that pre-exposure prophylaxis (PreP) has the potential to be a very important new tool as part of a comprehensive HIV prevention package. We must now move forward to begin planning on how to best integrate and rollout PreP.” She said. Lee feels the release of the first ever National AIDS Strategy by President Obama earlier this year, combined with the return of the International AIDS Conference to the United States in 2012, after a 21 year boycott, will shine an international spotlight on America’s global response to AIDS/HIV over the next two years. “With over 4,157 people across nine states currently on waiting lists for lifesaving AIDS treatment in the United States and nearly 10 million HIV positive people around the world still in need of treatment – we must not let our commitment to fighting this pandemic falter or our resolve fail.”