World Aids Day, 2001

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 7510 of November 30, 2001

World Aids Day, 2001

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

This year marks the 20th year that the world has been
fighting the disease that we now know as Acquired
Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). AIDS has inflicted a
terrible toll upon the world, taking millions of lives
and causing untold grief to the families and friends of
its victims. An estimated 40 million people worldwide
are living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV),
which causes AIDS; and more than 8,000 people across
the globe die from AIDS every day. Sadly, since its
inception, AIDS has claimed the lives of more than 22
million individuals.

This year's World AIDS Day theme is ``I Care . . . Do
You? Youth and AIDS in the 21st Century.'' The goal
underscoring this year's theme is ensuring greater
education and involvement of young people in preventing
HIV/AIDS. And it seeks to stress that every individual
has both the responsibility and the opportunity to help
prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and to assist those
suffering from the disease.

In many countries, including the United States, young
people and adolescents are at a higher risk for
contracting HIV infection. We know from epidemiological
data that young people under the age of 25 comprise
half of all new HIV infections worldwide. This sobering
reality is a clarion call to public health networks
around the world to redouble their efforts in providing
information to young people about preventing HIV/AIDS,
and most importantly, about abstinence and how it can
help to prevent the spread of this disease.

The AIDS epidemic has had a devastating impact on
diverse communities, and disadvantaged youth have borne
the brunt of this devastation. Impoverished conditions
and depressed economic circumstances tend to accompany
an increased presence of HIV in these communities. We
must develop and implement better ways to communicate
to youth about abstinence and other effective measures
that will help them to avoid the disease and to
envision a future filled with possibility.

We must also continue our efforts to develop a vaccine
that will protect individuals from becoming infected
with HIV. Our children deserve to live in a world free
from the fear of HIV/AIDS, and the United States will
not weaken in its resolve to lead the world towards
that goal.

As we enter the third decade of the AIDS pandemic, our
hearts go out to those who have been afflicted with or
affected by this deadly disease. We resolve to stand
together as a Nation and with the world to fight AIDS
on all fronts. We resolve to provide the resources
necessary to combat HIV/AIDS. And we resolve to ensure
that those suffering with HIV/AIDS receive effective
care and treatment, compassionate understanding, and
encouraging hope.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim December 1, 2001, as World
AIDS Day. I invite the Governors of the States and the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, officials of the other
territories subject to the jurisdiction

of the United States, and the American people to join
me in reaffirming our commitment to combat HIV/AIDS. I
encourage every American to participate in appropriate
commemorative programs and ceremonies in workplaces,
houses of worship, and other community centers to reach
out and protect and educate our children, and to help
comfort all people who are living with HIV and AIDS.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
thirtieth day of November, in the year of our Lord two
thousand one, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and twenty-sixth.

(Presidential Sig.)B