Today, and in the future, this Subcommittee will perform its oversight responsibility of examining health-related programs and practices that are promising and that will save lives. As we will hear today, the AIDS epidemic is global and horrific, and it continues to spread across the world unabated. Other continents and regions also are at risk. Witnesses will tell us first-hand of the devastating impacts of the epidemic in Africa, including economic, health and humanitarian consequences. They will reveal some of the terrible consequences to themselves and their loved ones.
Recent studies show that women are now being infected at a greater rate than men.
I am encouraged by recent press accounts that a new, more affordable drug is being developed which may significantly reduce the incidence of AIDS transmission from an infected mother to her unborn child. Tragically there are nearly 600,000 new infections each year among African babies. Nine of every 10 infants infected with HIV at birth or through breastfeeding live in sub-Saharan Africa. The World Health Organization and affiliated organizations recently announced that AIDS kills more people worldwide than any infectious disease. Imagine, in less than two decades, AIDS has become the leading killer of all infectious diseases.