Commemorating and supporting the goals of World AIDS Day.

Commemorating and supporting the goals of World AIDS Day. Whereas, as of the end of 2021, an estimated 38,400,000 people were living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), including 1,700,000 children; Whereas, in the United States, more than 770,000 people with AIDS have died since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, including over 18,000 deaths among people with diagnosed HIV in 2020, with the disease disproportionately affecting communities of color; Whereas, in 2020, over 30,000 people became newly diagnosed with HIV in the United States; Whereas communities of color are disproportionately affected by HIV in the United States; Whereas, in order to address the HIV epidemic in the United States, on August 18, 1990, Congress enacted the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act ( Public Law 101381 Ryan White CARE Act Whereas the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program provides services and support for over half of all people diagnosed with HIV in the United States; Whereas, to further focus attention on the HIV/AIDS epidemic among minority communities in the United States, in 1998 the Minority AIDS Initiative was established to provide funds to State and local institutions and organizations to best serve the health care costs and support the needs of racial and ethnic minorities living with HIV; Whereas the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals established a global target to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030; Whereas, in order to further address the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, in 2003, Congress and the White House created the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (referred to in this preamble as PEPFAR Whereas the United States PEPFAR program remains the largest commitment in history by any country to combat a single disease; Whereas, as of September 30, 2022, PEPFAR has supported treatment for more than 20,000,000 people, and has enabled 5,500,000 infants of mothers living with HIV to be born HIV-free; Whereas, in fiscal year 2021, PEPFAR directly supported HIV testing and counseling for 64,700,000 people; Whereas the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was launched in 2002, and, as of 2021, has helped provide antiretroviral therapy to approximately 23,300,000 people living with HIV/AIDS and to 670,000 pregnant women to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS to their children, saving an estimated 50,000,000 lives; Whereas the United States is the largest donor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and every $1 contributed by the United States leverages an additional $2 from other donors, as required by law; Whereas, with United States leadership, global partners pledged record amounts to combat infectious diseases at the seventh replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS in September 2022; Whereas considerable progress has been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, including a nearly 30-percent reduction in new HIV infections, an over 50-percent reduction in new HIV infections among children, and an over 45-percent reduction in the number of AIDS-related deaths between 2010 and 2020; Whereas approximately 28,700,000 people had access to antiretroviral therapy in 2021, compared to only 7,800,000 people who had access to such therapy in 2010; Whereas research funded by the National Institutes of Health found that HIV treatment not only saves the lives of people living with HIV, but people living with HIV on effective antiretroviral therapy and who are durably virally suppressed cannot sexually transmit HIVproving that HIV treatment is prevention; Whereas it is estimated that, without treatment, half of all infants living with HIV will die before their second birthday; Whereas, despite the remarkable progress in combating HIV, significant challenges remain; Whereas there were approximately 1,500,000 new HIV infections in 2021 globally, structural barriers continue to make testing and treatment programs inaccessible to highly vulnerable populations, and an estimated 5,900,000 people living with HIV globally still do not know their HIV status; Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that nearly 31,000 people were diagnosed with HIV in the United States in 2020 and 13 percent of the 1,200,000 people in the United States living with HIV are not aware of their HIV status; Whereas men who have sex with men (referred to in this preamble as MSM Whereas southern States bear the greatest burden of HIV in the United States, accounting for 51 percent of new infections in 2018; Whereas people living with HIV are frequently susceptible to other infections, such as hepatitis B and C and tuberculosis; Whereas the opioid and heroin epidemics have led to increased numbers of new HIV infections among people who inject drugs, and the crisis has disproportionately affected nonurban areas, where HIV prevalence rates have been low historically and have limited services for HIV prevention and treatment and substance use disorder treatment; Whereas the COVID19 pandemic has placed a significant burden on the public health systems across the United States and the globe; Whereas 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the PEPFAR program, an initiative launched by President George W. Bush with bi-partisan support that has become the primary policy instrument of the United States to address HIV/AIDS in the developing world; Whereas December 1 of each year is internationally recognized as World AIDS Day Whereas, in 2022, commemorations for World AIDS Day recognize that the inequalities which perpetuate the AIDS pandemic are not inevitable and that the world can tackle them: Now, therefore, be it That the Senate (1) supports the goals and ideals of World AIDS Day, including the goal to achieve zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination, and zero AIDS-related deaths; (2) commends the efforts and achievements in combating HIV/AIDS through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act, the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Office of Minority Health, and the Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services; (3) commends the efforts and achievements in combating HIV/AIDS made by the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS; (4) supports efforts to end the HIV epidemic in the United States and around the world by 2030; (5) supports continued funding for prevention, care, and treatment services, and research programs for communities impacted by HIV and people living with HIV in the United States and globally; (6) urges, in order to ensure that an AIDS-free generation is achievable, rapid action by all countries toward further expansion and scale-up of antiretroviral treatment programs, including efforts to reduce disparities and improve access for children to life saving medications; (7) encourages the scaling up of comprehensive prevention services, including biomedical and structural interventions, to ensure inclusive access to programs and appropriate protections for all people at risk of contracting HIV, especially in communities disproportionately impacted; (8) calls for greater focus on the HIV-related vulnerabilities of women and girls, including women and girls at risk for or who have survived violence or faced discrimination as a result of the disease; (9) supports continued leadership by the United States in domestic, bilateral, multilateral, and private sector efforts to fight HIV; (10) encourages input from civil society in the development and implementation of domestic and global HIV policies and programs that guide the response; (11) encourages and supports greater degrees of ownership and shared responsibility by developing countries in order to ensure the sustainability of the domestic responses to HIV/AIDS by those countries; and (12) urges other members of the international community to sustain and scale up their support for and financial contributions to efforts around the world to combat HIV.

Summary: This resolution encourages people around the world to work to achieve the goal of zero new HIV transmissions, zero discrimination, and zero AIDS-related deaths, in order to end the HIV epidemic in the United States and around the world by 2030. The resolution supports continued funding for prevention, care and treatment services, and research programs for communities impacted by HIV and people living with HIV in the United States and globally. The resolution supports continued leadership by the United States in domestic, bilateral, multilateral, and private sector efforts to fight HIV. Finally, the resolution urges other members of the international community to sustain and scale up their support for and financial contributions to efforts around the world to combat HIV.