Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on
Thursday announced the Obama administration's blueprint for an
AIDS-free generation.
Clinton made her remarks in recognition
of World AIDS Day, which takes place Saturday, December 1.
“I am so pleased to have this
opportunity to unveil, formally, the blueprint for an AIDS-free
generation,” she said.
“Now, make no mistake about it: HIV
may well be with us into the future. But the disease that it causes
need not be. We can reach a point where virtually no children are
born with the virus, and as these children become teenagers and
adults, they are at a far lower risk of becoming infected than they
are today. And if they do acquire HIV, they have access to treatment
that helps prevent them from not only … developing AIDS, but from …
passing the virus on to others.”
The blueprint calls for driving down
new infections while increasing access to treatment, Clinton said.
“So as we continue to drive down the
number of new infections and drive up the number of people on
treatment, eventually we will be able to treat more people than
become infected every year. That will be the tipping point. We will
then get ahead of the pandemic, and an AIDS-free generation will be
in our sight. Now, we don't know how long it will take to do this
everywhere, but we know that we can do it.” (Video of a portion of
her remarks is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)