Speaking at the 2009 World AIDS Day luncheon hosted by UNAIDS.

I decided to leave politics in 1987 to serve as a Foreign Service medical officer based in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).  The AIDS epidemic was in full bloom at the time, and as I traveled around the region I witnessed firsthand the suffering and devastation it caused. When I returned from Africa and first entered Congress, I was amazed at how much misinformation there was about the disease.  I realized that I had to help educate my colleagues about it and started the Congressional Task Force on International HIV/AIDS, which now includes nearly 50 members.  I continue to chair this taskforce, and I am pleased that since its founding, we have been able to help raise awareness of the epidemic among many members of Congress.

The sheer scope of this epidemic has altered both the social and the economic realities in many of the hardest hit areas. In South Africa, where almost ten percent of the population has been infected, the government has said that economic growth will actually be slowed because of AIDS. UNAIDS has stated that in the developing world, infection rates are as much as four times higher in the military than in the civilian world. This could soon lead to major destabilization of militaries throughout the developing world. If the United States is to help maintain global security, then we as a nation must work to address the fact that HIV/AIDS could seriously undercut military and political stability in much of the developing world.