Replies

Dr. Richard Darling, a California dentist who is spearheading the movement, calls it "grossly unfair" that money spent on AIDS exceeds the amount spent on illnesses such as heart disease, which kills more than 700,000 annually. "The entire allocation system is outrageously biased towards AIDS," said Dr. Darling. "The system is extremely unfair to heart disease, liver disease, diabetes, breast cancer, prostate disease, Alzheimer s and leukemia."

The National Institutes of Health will spend $2.5 billion for AIDS research this year, compared with $1.9 billion for cardiovascular diseases. Other diseases that receive far few research dollars include:

* Cancer: The second leading cause of death in the United States, 549,838 people died of cancer in 1999. NIH is funding the National Cancer Institute at an estimated $4.2 billion in 2002-or $7,713 for each death from cancer.

* Breast Cancer: With 180,000 new cases each year, breast cancer is the leading cause of death among American women who are 40-55 years of age. Each year about 46,000 women die of the disease. The NIH is currently spending $396 million on breast cancer research-or $8,608 per death from the disease.

* Diabetes: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 7 million Americans have diabetes-the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. In 1999 64,751 people died from complications associated with diabetes. The NIH has budgeted $450 million for diabetes research-or $6,949 per death from diabetes.

Despite the fact that since 1998 AIDS has not been on the list of the top 15 causes of death in America, the current NIH AIDS research budget amounts to an astounding $164,000 per AIDS death. This figure does not include the public monies spent to treat AIDS through the federal Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources (CARE) Act. Funding for CARE is currently $1.8 billion.

http://forums.questioningaids.com/showthread.php?t=4312