[Pharm-policy] Rep. Jessie Jackson, Jr. on Gore speech on HIV/AIDS

[James Love]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                       FRANK E. WATKINS
MONDAY, JANUARY 10, 2000
202-225-0773

ON GORE'S INCREASED AID FOR AFRICAN AIDS:
LITTLE AND LATE

Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. said today that "Vice President Al Gore should be
commended for highlighting the problem of HIV/AIDS in Africa before the
United Nations, but the help he offered of an additional $100 million from
the U.S as a first step -- $4.35 per person for each of the 23 million
Africans who are infected with HIV/AIDS -- is little and late.  Why little
and late?  Unless something dramatic is done, it is projected that more
Africans will die in the first decade of the 21st century than have died in
all the wars of the 20th century.  Every minute we delay, ten more people
are infected with the HIV/AIDS virus.  By 2010, HIV/AIDS is expected to
create 40 million orphans.  Africans speak more than 1500 languages.  The
$100 million is not to fight HIV/AIDS directly, but to educate 650 million
Africans about HIV/AIDS -- which amounts to $.15 per African.  It is in the
security insterests of the U.S. and the world to address this issue."

Jackson also said, "When the Clinton-Gore administration had the option of
supporting a bill that would have addressed the HIV/AIDS crisis and the many
other important issues that are negatively impacting Africa (e.g., debt
relief) it chose instead to support the African Growth and Opportunity Act
(AGOA) -- which was finally amended to include a sense of the Congress' good
intentions relative to HIV/AIDS, but actually did nothing about HIV/AIDS.
AGOA will only perpetuate many of the serious problems confronting Africa.

"Not only did the Clinton-Gore administration support AGOA, it also rejected
and strongly fought against an alternative bill that I offered called the
HOPE (Human Rights, Opportunity, Partnership and Empowerment) for Africa Act
(H.R. 772) which would have meaningfully addressed HIV/AIDS, debt relief and
many other problems facing Africa.

"The Gore campaign has been plagued from the start with protests against the
Clinton-Gore administration's AIDS policy towards Africa.  As the Chicago
Tribune reported yesterday, 'When AIDS-plagued South Africa hinted that it
might manufacture its own AZT, an expensive anti-retroviral drug, the U.S.
government, backed by the pharmaceutical industry, threatened sanctions.
Patent laws were at stake.  And despite President Clinton's recent promise
to intervene on South Africa's behalf, the confrontation remains at an
impasse.'

"If the Clinton-Gore administration is actually serious about dealing with
the African HIV/AIDS crisis, it can still support H.R. 2700, the 'Highly
Essential Life-Saving Pharmaceuticals (HELP) for Africa Act' which is
currently before Congress.  It resolves the 'compulsory licensing' and
'parallel importing' issues that serve even today as barriers to confronting
this issue and would go a long way toward giving aid and relief to the
suffering people of Africa.  Our money and commitment must match the size of
the problem," Jackson concluded.

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****************************
Frank E. Watkins
Press Secretary/Director of Communications
Office of Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr.
313 CHOB
Washington, DC 20515-1302
Voice: 202-225-0773
Fax: 202-225-0899
Home Voice: 202-554-5580
frank.watkins@mail.house.gov