[Archie Bunker on steroids]

The planet is probably investing 30 times more into AIDS research than all other lethal diseases combined. Had we poured that kind of money into cancer, it is unlikely that people would have to suffer through chemo & agonizing death.

Amazing, a disease that can be prevented by proper behavior choices.

[okiedust]

You are of course correct about the behaviour component of AIDS as a disease, but the research into the mechanisms of immunology can benifit a host of diseases. Look at it this way, while it is a vile and avoidable social disease with a politically correct base of funding, like many things it can carry an unexpected bonus in knowledge which will far surpass the original objectives of the research.

regards

[Endeavor]

Okiedust has it right. What we are learning about the immune response via AIDS research is leading to developments across the human disease spectrum.

That said, would that we could have bypassed the AIDS situation, but life is not that simple.

[buffyt]

You are 100% correct! My teenage son said the same thing. People who get breast cancer sure wish they could have just avoided bad behavior to avoid cancer......

[concerned about politics]

Had we poured that kind of money into cancer, it is unlikely that people would have to suffer through chemo & agonizing death.

That's what I was thinking as I read the article. Cancer is not volentary. Cancer patients are really victims.

[Neuromancer]

The sad history of PC in the AIDS pandemic is all too true. Many fought for normal STD protocols in the early stage of this disease. Contact tracing and screening might have saved many lives..

I will not defend the funding of AIDS nor lung cancer research. However when we strive to eliminate the pain and suffering of those who are weak and imperfect - we glorify God.

[illbenice]

"Amazing, a disease that can be prevented by proper behavior choices."

Not always, my grandpa and three of his brothers died of aids. Their only crime was having hemophelia and needing blood.

[RobbyS]

Unsaid is how many of these patients have changed their lifestyle.

[tortoise]

Amazing, a disease that can be prevented by proper behavior choices.

Ignoring the fact that a HUGE amount of general anti-viral technologies have come out of the HIV problem (before which, we had literally no anti-viral capability). So it has definitely helped everyone. I personally know people who have been successfully treated for nasty non-behavioral viral diseases with drugs that came out of HIV research.

That said, I've had a couple epidemiologists tell me that they suspect there may now be a mosquito vector for HIV. While there is no conclusive proof at this time, there are at least two distinct locales of the world (one in southeast Asia and one somewhere in Africa) where they have seen infection patterns that are consistent with mosquito vectors that have not yet been explained. You may not care about HIV today, but you may very well care tomorrow.

[aruanan]

Had we poured that kind of money into cancer, it is unlikely that people would have to suffer through chemo & agonizing death.

Hardly. But the total amount spent on cancer to date is pretty staggering. If as much had been spent on cancer over the same time span as on HIV and related virus research, the possibility of a cure for cancer would be much less certain than developing a cure for a virus because "cancer" is a catch-all term for many, many different diseases that have many different causes (some of them viral--so at least here the research done on HIV has a directly applicability to virally-related cancers). The likelihood is for emerging diseases to be viral in nature, not bacterial. The knowledge gained in studying the onset and progression of a viral disease has had and will have a great impact on medical science because there is protection against only a relatively few viral diseases to date.