Washington File - April 11, 2000
Jim Fisher-Thompson, Washington File Staff Writer

Leahy made his announcement at a public hearing called by the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, which looked into funding for global health. The chief witness before the subcommittee was Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers. Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), submitted a written statement.

A W.H.O. chart displayed in the hearing room provided a breakdown of worldwide deaths from infectious diseases, including 3.5 million cases of respiratory infections, flu, and pneumonia; 2.3 million cases of HIV/AIDS; 2.2 million cases of diarrheal diseases; 1.5 million cases of tuberculosis (TB); 1.1 million cases of malaria; and 0.9 million cases of measles.

Leahy's proposal, "The Global Health Act of 2000," calls for an additional $1,000 million for research and treatment in five major areas: HIV/AIDS; other deadly infectious diseases like TB, malaria, and measles; children's health; women's health; and family planning.

A House of Representatives version of the bill was introduced by Representative Joseph Crowley, whose legislative district in Queens, New York, is the site of a recent outbreak of West Nile encephalitis.

Leahy told the subcommittee that "we can, and we must, recognize that we need to think in terms of far larger amounts of money if we are serious about global health. Every dollar of the additional $1,000 million called for in my legislation, which is double the amount we currently spend on these activities, is justified and urgently needed. And the payoff would be enormous, both in terms of lives saved and in future health care cost savings."

The Clinton administration has asked U.S. lawmakers for an additional $150 million this fiscal year for vaccines and HIV/AIDS treatment and research in the developing world.

Subcommittee Chairman Mitch McConnell, who has expressed doubt about the value of foreign aid, said he was especially pleased at the government-private sector collaboration forged between President Clinton's Millennium Vaccine Initiative and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). Referring to the latter, he said, "Both the generous commitment from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation [$750 million] and support from pharmaceutical companies, most notably Merck, have the potential to improve immunization coverage in the targeted countries."

Treasury Secretary Summers said it is critical that more finance ministers become involved in global health issues because of the threat disease poses to economic globalization. As for the United States' position, he noted that developing countries now account for some 42 percent of its exports -- making it "a moral and an economic imperative" that it try to alter the situation.

And now is an especially opportune time for attacking the issue of global health, he said, because of:

-- the recent work and breakthroughs in vaccine development;

-- new cooperation between government and the private sector;

-- changes in attitude toward economic policies by developing nations that emphasizes providing basic health services; and

-- decisions by international lenders and donors to provide debt relief to countries that channel more resources into their health care sectors.

Recalling Clinton's vaccine initiative, Summers said, "We are building on the support of the private sector, including pharmaceutical companies that can provide the research and development that is so necessary to developing the right vaccine; we are also drawing on the commitment of the non-profit sector, including organizations like the Gates Foundation that has contributed so generously to the fight against disease; and we are utilizing the expertise of government so that it can act as a catalyst to ensure that these efforts are expanded on an international scale."

Brundtland, a former Norwegian prime minister, said in her prepared remarks that the developed world should provide more health care aid in poorer countries because of "enlightened self-interest."

She also lauded the administration-GAVI effort "because it brings public and private sector partners together in a worldwide network."

Brundtland said that "it is a true public-private partnership [because] it is based on a shared responsibility for a world where all children receive a basic chance of survival and health. It draws on the success of child survival and immunization programs, backed for many years by Congress, and particularly by this committee."

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