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AIDS Popularity Leads to Unfair Disease Funding


In the race against curing diseases, is it a popularity contest? If you take a look at the funding distributions of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), you'd probably say "without question."

Whether you or a loved one have been diagnosed with a life-threatening disease or not, one can hardly ignore the staggering statistics on disease funding by the NIH. Almost 2.8 billion dollars are going to AIDS research in 2003, while 16 other diseases - which kill many thousands more Americans than AIDS yearly - are only receiving a small fraction of the government's dollars.

AIDS has become the "in" disease. Support among the Hollywood elite, politicians and the wealthy has become almost a fad.

The AIDS activists don't want you to know their disease is no longer epidemic in the USA and they continue to press for more funding - and to their credit, their efforts have accomplished phenomenal feats in the fight against AIDS. Just look at the numbers - deaths from AIDS have plummeted 72% in the USA since 1995. That's why it's time to redirect funding to diseases that are more deserving and currently receiving millions, or even billions, less than AIDS.

For example, diabetes kills more Americans than AIDS and breast cancer combined, yet the NIH is spending $5,500 on every patient identified as having AIDS while spending $70 on each diabetic. And heart disease - which strikes over 700,000 yearly compared to 14,132 from AIDS - receives almost ¾ of a Billion dollars less than AIDS.

Funding needs to be fair and equitable for all diseases. The NIH must look at prorating funds based on a disease's mortality rate, and as a secondary factor, degree of suffering. The disease that kills the most Americans should get the most research funding, and so on.

This issue is especially sensitive in our country, which is very tuned into the world of AIDS. But when the AIDS death rate in newly infected patients has dropped 97% in the state of California, it's time to start congratulating AIDS organizations for their successes while shifting research dollars from AIDS to diseases like lung disease, prostate disease, Alzheimer's Disease, brain disease and diabetes.

To view a list of the 16 diseases that kill more Americans than AIDS, go to http://www.ProrateNIH.com

Disease
Deaths per Disease (2001)
NIH Research Money Spent

Per Patient Death (2003)

Heart Disease
699,697
$35

AIDS
14,132
$5,500

Diabetes
71,252
$70

Alzheimer's Disease
53,679
$161

Prostate Disease
30,714
$145

Parkinson's Disease
16,576
$398

Hepatitis C
NIH Estimate for 2002

= 10,000-12,000
$25

West Nile Virus
In 2002: 284
In 2003: Zero
In 2002: $6,737
In 2003: $ 14 Million,

(2 cases in 2003)

http://www.proratenih.com/update.htm

waterspider

....| funny how every one talks about aids/hiv "apathy" when people are so
willing
| to assume that heart disease is inevitable. yet 1% of all babies born in
the
| us have a heart defect. that's one out of every hundred new lives, every
| day. as a parent who has watched too many open heart surgeries on my 3 day
| old, then at 2, 3, 4 year old son i wouldn't mind seeing pediatric
| cardiology funding by the NIH doubled. even at that, the funding would be
| only 5% of what has been spent on AIDS/HIV research for all ages for only
1%
| of the population every year.

Thanks for the perspective, Dez.
I guess we all suffer from that centre-of-the-universe syndrome and lose
sight of the big picture.

Hope you're doing as well as can be on tx. Look forward to the end, you'll
be surprised how good you feel, and how quickly the sides vanish! When I was
on tx, I couldn't remember or imagine what feeling good was, but life is
good again. In fact, it's ****ing wonderful! Hang in, bud, and you take
care.

All the best, and hi to Strelsa,

Waterspider

perado dez

thanks Waterspider. i'm doing ok, still suffer from assholeitis. but i can't
blame that on entirely on tx. glad you're clear and glad to hear you're
feeling better! i'm taking your recipe and doubling it. :-) us 1a'ers can't
get enough. lol

Dez

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perado dez

<snip>


you haven't been a whiner, no need to apologize. we've all got our share of
challenges we face. all of us.

Dez


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waterspider

| you haven't been a whiner, no need to apologize. we've all got our share
of
| challenges we face. all of us.

Lol, you're right, Dez, but for most of us, *you're* our biggest challenge!

;-)

Waterspider

perado dez

i had a manager tell me during a review once that he only kept me around
because as an engineer i thought outside of the box. then he paused and
looked at me and said you've never seen the inside of the box have you? i
looked at him and smiled and said, i've been tossed over a couple of times,
they keep tossing me back ;-)

Dez

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perado dez

Mom, you already are doing it. you're helping Katie and all of us. the site
where this comes from is written by a dentist who has the bottom ump****
illnesses below aids. he's written a book about how "unfair" the funding is.
he wants us to buy his book. don't feed him. you'll have to set another
plate at the dinner table if you do. ;-)

Dez


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mary_gordon@tvo.org (mary

Couple of thoughts on this
- for starters, a LOT of the chronic diseases that cause so much
suffering and contribute to shortened lives involve immune system
disorders - so AIDs related research into the immune system and the
fundamentals of how it works is very likely to have spin off benefits
for other diseases. Not just autoimmune diseases, but also problems
caused by chronic inflammation like heart disease. And if you could
turn the immune system on and off, you also might have a hope of
dealing with cancers in a better way than slash, burn and poison.

- North Americans don't live in a vaccuum. HIV is a growing problem
globally, and will contribute to some devastating problems and
political instability. Are we that stupid that we think we could let
entire continents suffer and die and just stand by and do nothing, and
think it will have no impact on us?

Mary G

evelyn ruut

Dear Mary,

There is another thought that came into my mind when I saw the statistics.
AIDS captures the interest and sympathy (and hence the research dollars)
because it affects the young, otherwise healthy, productive members of
society, or even the innocent babies of those who are infected.

Alzheimers (excepting in the case of early onset) affects the elderly, those
who have lived their lives, had their children, often retired people. It
is every bit as much a tragedy, but somehow the public sympathizes more with
the young. It is natural to do so.

There are just so many research dollars to spread around, and there are so
many awful illnesses out there, and there just isn't enough to deal with
them all. The fact that an entire generation is being wiped out from AIDS
in some places in the world, is a horrible and frightening prospect.

I think that it is totally a natural human feeling to try and protect the
young first.

In an ideal world there would be greater equity.... and this isn't an ideal
world, it is just the only one we've got.
--

Evelyn

"Since everything is but an apparition, perfect in being what it is, having
nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst
into laughter." -Longchenpa

alastor

It's also possible that HIV is a virus, and is rather easily curable
once we figure out how to kill the virus where as we have Alzheimer's,
which is a brain tissue disease rather than a killable bug. The only
realistic cure for Alzheimer's that I have heard about (although I
confess I am only now learning) is stem cell research - which is
currently hamstrung and has no hope of being liberated until we elect a
less conservative President.

The point is that many in the medical community may well feel that what
can be done for Alzheimer's is being done, and no real progress can be
made there until we change the current laws regarding research. At the
same time, AIDS is very curable, once we figure out the virus.

It may well be entirely justified that they aren't funding other
diseases the same way they are AIDs.

Also, let's not forget that the US is by most standards, the only
Superpower left on the planet, and we have a responsibility to the
entire world and not just ourselves whether we like it or not.

World-wide I am willing to bet that Africa alone changes the statistics
given on the chart dramatically. It is indeed an epidemic speaking in a
global sense, and we are a globally conscious society - and we really
don't have any other choice.

So maybe that's another reason, though the ones listed above are also good.

Alastor.