|
Are
you aware that the death rate from AIDS has plummeted
over 90% in many states
(a) yet AIDS still receives
10% (b) of the entire federal research budget? The bias
towards AIDS has resulted in gross differences in funding for
diseases. Our government is spending only $124
on each Alzheimer's patient in research versus versus
$3,084 on each AIDS patient (c). When one is aware that
Alzheimer’s kills as many in the USA as the combined total of AIDS, breast
cancer and Parkinson's combined, one can only shout,
“That’s not FAIR!”
But
that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The increase in funding for
AIDS since 1999 – just the increase – is greater than the 2005
budget for almost every other disease, including Alzheimer's, except cancer and
cardiovascular disease. Although the above statistics involve
disease research, one cannot help but notice that at present
AIDS funding levels, one can now say,
“The total amount spent on all AIDS programs is
1/5th of a Trillion dollars (d).
“But AIDS is a pandemic and it deserves more funding!” AIDS
activists argue. The World Health Organization and UNAIDS report
that the AIDS infection rate is
less than 1% (e) in every country except in Sub-Saharan
African and the Caribbean. What do they need: more research
dollars? No, they need the exact same thing that has resulted in
the plummeting AIDS
deaths throughout America: namely, the effective drugs that have been developed,
prevention education, harm reduction policies, clean water and
food, and setting up a health infrastructure to get these
remedies to their citizens.
Along with myself, there are thousands
of others from Maine to Hawaii who are demanding change in
research funding policies. With our government's
budgetary limitations eliminating research funding increases, is
now time to redirect some funding from AIDS to diseases like
Alzheimer's
and the
sixteen (f) that kill over a million more Americans than
AIDS annually
that are currently receiving billions less than AIDS . Research funding
must be fair and
equitable for all.
a. http://fairfoundation.org/states/hiv-aids_deaths_by_state.htm
b.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/nih.htm
c.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/factslinks.htm
d.
http://www.kff.org/hivaids/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=33622
e.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0800505.html
f.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/thesixteen.htm
Congress.org is a public service
of
Capitol Advantage and is powered by the award-winning
Capwiz™ grassroots advocacy solution. Capwiz
is used by over 1200 leading non-profits, trade associations and
media websites including AOL, Yahoo!, and MSN. If you would like
to test drive Capwiz for your own organization,
complete this form and they'll have a Capwiz site
customized just for you in just one business day. |
