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  Place HIV/AIDS in proper perspective The Knoxville News-Sentinel’s multiple-part series on HIV/AIDS in Tennessee begs the question, “Does HIV/AIDS deserve such media attention when compared to other diseases?” Chandra Harris’s article on AIDS in African-Americans[1] provides percentages but neglects to give the actual numbers so that the reader can make an informed decision on this issue. In Tennessee, the number of African-American AIDS deaths in 2003 was 245 (sixty seven were women).[2] The total of 245 is a significant percent of the total number of Tennessee’s 372 AIDS deaths; however, when compared to overall deaths from heart disease (15,891) or cancer (12,595)[3] in Tennessee, the threat from that disease to the general public is seen in its proper perspective. In reality, AIDS is not even close to being one of the top ten killers of Tennessee residents.[4] In Harris’s portrayal of HIV/AIDS in senior citizens (“Older generation must break silence, talk to doctor about AIDS”[5]), she states, “trends of seniors using sexual enhancement drugs” and “of older men dating younger women” are “contributing factors to the rise of infection rates in the elderly community.” With such statements and the recommendation in the title, the reader may think seniors are mirroring the sex revolution of the sixties and that their situation is quite dire. In 2003, the actual number of Tennessee deaths in persons with HIV/AIDS over the age of 65 was four. Since the onset of the disease in the USA in 1981, the total number of deaths in Tennessee’s seniors is ninety-three.[6] News-Sentinel’s HIV/AIDS series discloses that due
to improved drug therapy, HIV/AIDS is now a chronic illness and patients
are living for decades. That is the main reason for an increase in elder
HIV cases: those who got it in their forties and fifties are now older. Although diabetes kills more Americans than AIDS and breast cancer combined, our government is spending only $56 per diabetic in research versus $3,084 per AIDS patient.[9] Hepatitis C now kills more AIDS patients than AIDS does,[10] yet only $25 is spent on hepatitis C research per patient. Those statistics are not fair, nor are they equitable, and they are a small sample of unfair funding for non-AIDS diseases resulting from the favoritism given HIV/AIDS. Some argue that such funding is necessary to stem the tide of global AIDS. The solutions to global AIDS infections are the same answers that have dramatically dropped the death rate in the USA: namely, preventive education, effective medicine and harm reduction policies (clean syringes). Utilizing these techniques, California’s large HIV/AIDS community has dropped its death rate in newly infected patients 97 percent to 286 (as of 8/31/05).[11] It cannot be overlooked that in terms of overall funding for HIV/AIDS, the Kaiser Foundation reports such expenditures will exceed one-fifth of a trillion dollars in two more years.[12] AIDS can no longer be identified as a crisis in America, for if we label it as such when it is affecting one million patients and killing 18,000 per year,[13] what adjective do we use for cardiovascular disease, which has sixty-one million sufferers and kills 930,000 annually?[14] Indeed, it is now appropriate for our government and the media to recognize the great success of AIDS researchers and activists and, respectively, adjust research funding and media emphasis accordingly. Dr. Richard Darling, DDS is a National Public Citizen of the Year (NASW-2003) recipient and President/CEO of The FAIR Foundation, whose membership includes many Tennessee citizens in seven cities who are desirous of fair and equitable governmental research allocations. (http:www.fairfoundation.org)
[1]
“AIDS will strike any one, spare no one” |
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