Madam Speaker, I did not get a chance to speak to the bill, although I would have loved to have done so.
I want to thank every member and every party in the House for supporting the bill. The bill is critically important in dealing with a disease.
I have been to Africa 20 times. I have seen hundreds of people dying of this disease. I have seen an orphanage where there are 60 bassinets with two to three babies under the age of six months in each bassinet. One-third of those children are dying of AIDS. Those children will never know the touch of a human being and will never know their parents, because most of their parents are dead or have died of AIDS.
This disease is eviscerating entire countries, destroying the workforce of nations and leaving behind a sea of orphans, and not only in sub-Saharan Africa. What is highly unrecognized is that this disease is now on the geometric cusp in Russia, China, eastern Europe and India. Unfortunately, many of the political leaders in those countries have chosen not to be gripped by this problem and have buried their heads in the sand.
I want to thank members from all parties for supporting the bill. I also want to thank my colleagues and the former prime minister, who took such a leadership role. If all of us are seized with the issue, we will not underestimate the fact that this disease will kill 220 million or more human beings, a number far greater than is commonly recognized.
There are some exciting programs that we can adopt. Médecins Sans Frontières in the DRC, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has put together a very simple plan in villages which gets the anti-retrovirals to the people who need them in a way that is controlled and monitored.
I would only ask every member in the House to please work with all of us. Let us work with those in the field to make sure that the people get the ARVs. Let us make sure that the distribution and the monitoring mechanisms are there and that the ancillary functions required to address this horrible disease are there for people who are far less privileged than we are.
Again, I want to thank all members. I certainly hope the Senate will pass the bill quickly and that we move beyond the bill to deal with the very complex issues surrounding this very complex and horrible disease.