OK guys.....
With all due respect..etc.etc., I can say that there is a vast amount of misconsception in this thread...Ive time for a few points..
1) HIV consumes about 50% of the NIAID/DAIDS (branch of NIH) budget in US..IIRC about 30 Billion per year. To treat about .5 million patients. 3 billion more a year is about 10% more...not trivial but lets keep perspective..
2) The 15 Billion going to africa is earmarked for drug costs and healthcare infrastructure, prevention work. NOT for research (totally separate funding situation). Prevention or treatment in Africa will have negligable benifit DIRECTLY in US in terms of cases here. VERY limited cross Atlanic transmission is occuring. This is not the reason for the money.
3) I've talked directly with people involved in this..the message we give is humanitarian, which is part true. The REAL reason (like the real reason for Iraq) is between the lines. HIV is consuming vast proportions of sub-Sahara countries GDP, heath care funds. It is wiping out between 10-50% of young adult workforce. It is threatening to drive economic collapse on a continental scale. This will have an effect on the US economy at some level. In addition, this is the substrate for OTHER INFECTIOUS OUTBREAKS that MAY migrate to the US. It hs already reversed the WHO planned eradication of polio and several parasitc infections, vastly increased TB. Billions in heathcare investments in past years have gone down the drain secondary to the AIDS pandemic.
Finally, this is a substrate for problems including civil war, mob rule, and anarchy. A fertile ground for terrorism. Did you know that AlQueda is moving in large numbers to the region...and we have signif numbers of special ops in Africa to counter this?
Research before conjecture..
Last edited by Dan Nixon; 07/15/04 11:32 PM.
