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Are
you aware that the deaths from HIV/AIDS in California have
plummeted
92
percent to 642 (b) compared to
over 120,000 from COPD annually (c) yet AIDS still receives
10% (d) of the entire federal research budget? The bias
towards AIDS has resulted in gross differences in funding for
major killers and rare diseases like COPD. For example, our government is
spending $2,774 on each AIDS patient in research versus only $7
on each COPD patient, $39
on each diabetic and $29 on each cardiovascular disease (CVD)
patient.
(d)]
When one is made aware that COPD kills more Americans than
AIDS, diabetes & Parkinson's disease combined, and that there are sixteen diseases that kill
a million more Americans than AIDS every year one can only
shout, “That’s not FAIR!” (e)
And what is the
funding for “orphan diseases” like polycystic kidney disease,
amyloidosis, chronic pyelonephritis? An orphan disease is a rare
illness which has not been "adopted" by the pharmaceutical
industry because it provides little financial incentive for the
private sector to make and market new medications to treat or
prevent it. For these diseases it is especially important for
the government to step in with significantly greater research
funding. The total governmental
orphan-disease research allocation is $645 million, (d) which is
only $107,500, on average, for each disease. That is grossly
insufficient.
The
disproportionate research allocation of $2.9 billion on one
disease, HIV/AIDS, is just the tip of the iceberg. The increase
in funding for AIDS since 1999 – just the increase – is greater
than the entire 2009 budget for diabetes almost every other
disease except cancer and CVD. Although the above statistics
involve disease research, one cannot help but notice that the
total amount spent on all AIDS programs is 1/3rd of a Trillion
dollars (f).
In
addition, the $29 billion Gates Foundation is spending many
billions on AIDS research and Warren Buffet has pledged $31
billion more to Gates for the Gates Foundation’s effort and he
supports the Gate's bias in funding for HIV/AIDS. Also,
under the stimulus funding, $7.4 billion is being added to
bio-medical research pro-rata as in past years, therefore HIV is
scheduled for a very large--perhaps $740 million--increase
compared to only $740,000 for diabetes.
“But AIDS is a pandemic and it deserves more funding!” AIDS
activists argue. What do they need: more research dollars? No,
they need the exact same thing that has resulted in the an
HIV/AIDS death
reduction of over 90 percent (j) in a majority of US states: namely,
the effective drugs that have been developed, prevention
education, harm reduction policies (clean syringes for IV drug
users) and the development of health infrastructures so these
policies can be distributed.
I
am a proud member of
The FAIR Foundation (g) – “FAIR” stands for "Fair
Allocations in Research." Along with myself, there are thousands
of other members and supporters in all fifty states from Maine to Hawaii who are
coming together through the FAIR Foundation to alert America and
our politicians on the need for change in our government’s
research funding policies.
“FAIR” believes a disease’s mortality rate should be given
emphasis in determining allocations, and other secondary factors
should be utilized to insure diseases that cause great suffering
but have low mortality rates, like rare or “orphan” diseases,
will also
receive increased (h) dollars. Research funds should not be
allocated based on Hollywood popularity or political
correctness.
It
is now time to redirect funding to diseases that are more
deserving and currently receiving billions less than AIDS,
including orphan diseases and the
sixteen (i) that kill over a million more Americans than
AIDS annually such as COPD. Please endorse The FAIR Foundation’s efforts to
put an end to AIDS favoritism and recommend that all citizens
join their organization in demanding research funding that is
fair and equitable for all.
Footnotes:
a.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/update.htm
b.
http://fairfoundation.org/quiz/quizanswer.htm Many states have greater than 90 percent drop in deaths:
http://fairfoundation.org/states/hiv-aids_deaths_by_state.htm)
c.
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/lung/copd/what-is-copd/index.htm
d.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/factslinks.htm
e.
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/resources/reports/2007report/table8.htm
f.
http://www.kff.org/hivaids/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=33622
In addition to the funds reported in this Kaiser report, over
$20 billion has been spent or budgeted every year since.
g.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/
h.
http://fairfoundation.org/factors.htm
i.
http://www.fairfoundation.org/thesixteen.htm
j.
http://fairfoundation.org/states/hiv-aids_deaths_by_state.htm
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