SAME question in a more active forum?

Question

Why is it Diabetes kills more people than AIDS, but gets only a fraction of government monies towards research? It is the number one cause of blindness, heart attacks, stroke, renal failure, heart failure, amputations, and numerous other complications.Why does it not receive as much research dollars as AIDS?






49th in the world, with 4,900 deaths due to HIV/AIDS in 2005
2000, approximately 2.9 million died of diabetes,

Not all diabetics are fat. I have been diabetic for more than 20 years and I am a long way from fat. I am insulin dependant. How is that my fault?

By the way I work in nursing and although I have cared for AIDS patients I have to tell you I see more diabetic patients by far. Young and old.

And for those who care my main concern is for my children who may have inherited this. A cure at this point could not offer me a different path.

AIDS receives the lions share of research dollars in the U.S.A.

I DO want to add however that I do not begrudge AIDS one dime of it's research monies.

It is something I care about deeply.

Answer 1

Truthfully, it's because there are more government lobbyists for AIDS funding and AIDS is related to sexual activity and people seem to be more interested in protecting that more than any other activity (look at all the helpful sexual pharmaceuticals out there now....."try our drug because it will help you with erections" "try our drug and it will you give the sexual urge again", etc.......and there are more in research).

Diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, and a whole host of other diseases kill more people than AIDS does, but they don't really lobby the government for money like AIDS researchers do. I will say this, though, atleast the others put their money into education. I find pamphlets and see commercials, etc, more about diabetes, cancer, heart disease, etc far more so than AIDS (which is so different than when I was growing up.....I remember learning about AIDS when I was in grade school, but as I got up into high school I heard less and less and now I know people who are in school and don't even get taught much about it at all!!!!). It's ashame that one should have to trade educating others with research, but I find that people who get educated on such topics also usually help with donations. It may not be nearly as much as the government would give, but in a way it becomes far more personal for the people that donate. I should know, I donate money towards cancer research (and it is actually very personal since I have had a great deal of family members and friends die from cancer....and some who have survived. My mother is currently the most recent one in the family to get cancer and she is undergoing therapy right now....not that I don't have family members and friends who have diabetes or AIDS or other diseases, but I don't have enough money to donate to all of those...although from time to time I will give money for them when I can afford to).

Peace be with you.

Answer 2

In the UK, diabetes draws by far the largest share of NHS funding because of the number of sufferers of it.

Your figures are rather Western-centred: 171 million people worldwide have diabetes, while about 40 million live with HIV. But many of the diabetics are relatively mild (ie controlled by diet), and the death rate for HIV, unchecked, has the potential to overtake all other diseases' mortality rates and leave Africa practically unpopulated. Treatment for diabetes is reasonably straightforward, whereas that for HIV is precarious and, owing to the fact that the virus is relatively new to the world, still in development.

And that's probably your answer. No-one needs to spend more money trying to find out how to fix diabetes, because provided insulin is administered and care is taken, diabetics can live relatively normally. (More research is still going on, though, to eliminate insulin-dependence eventually, and the prospects look encouraging - if a while off.) HIV research has really only found ways to stall the onset of AIDS, and the virus cannot be eliminated from the body yet. Most research is carried out by drugs companies who have an eye on the huge potential profits from countries where HIV is endemic (mostly in sub-Saharan Africa). There is far less potential for profit in researching into diabetes, because it can be contained, the drugs are relatively cheap to produce even though they need vast quantities of them, and because drugs companies run on capitalistic principles, they chase profits, nothing else.

I don't think, incidentally, that we should entertain judgemental ideas about HIV, or we have to ask why all diseases (including diabetes, as this thread shows) afflict certain groups. HIV, for instance, is commonly mistaken for a "gay" disease, but it mostly afflicts heterosexuals of both sexes in Africa, and in countries where, for various reasons, condom use is not encouraged (or is even actively discouraged). No spouse deserves any kind of moral censure on becoming infected by an unfaithful partner, and no god would afflict someone innocent in that way.

Answer 3

I have often wondered the same thing. It is very easy to prevent AIDS - Don't have sex with an infected person. "But you never know who is infected!" Then follow the original design: 1 man, 1 woman, 1 lifetime. Granted, there may be people who have it from a blood transfusion, but the ultimate prevention still works.

AIDS has alot more publicity than cancers/diabetes/etc.

To the person who said diabetics are fat and bring it on themselves: 90% of diabetics are type 2 which are usually overweight. What about the other 10% who's diabetes is autoimmune? Oh, and I forgot to mention that at least 99% of those with type 2 have genetics involved.

Answer 4

Diabetes is not contagious!!!! A diabetic person can have sex with a non-diabetic person without the non-person having to worry about catching it!!!

In other words, in terms of society as a whole, DIABETES IS UNDER CONTROL. And as far as I know, the symtoms can be taken care of by moderately trivial procedures and staying physically healthy. If we do not focus on AIDS, it will ruin our society like it is doing with third-world countries. Diabetes is not an emergency epidemic.

Like it or not, our society is more concerned about diseases that have a large-scale effect than those that only have personal consequenses. I don't mean to downplay your condition--the fact is, my dad has diabetes and I may come down with it later in life, but AIDS poses a more large-scale threat.

Answer 5

IMHO--it is because of the public relations people and the stress they put on HIV/AIDS. Most people get HIV?AIDS from doing things that bring pleasure (feeding the flesh, as it were) and nobody likes to deny themselves some pleasure. Diabetes on the other hand--is a genetic disease that you really don't have to make a choice on.

Those in charge of funds want everybody happy and Lord help if someone has to quit doing a pleasurable thing that is wrong because it might kill them.

Answer 6

Probably because people are afraid of AIDS, but not of diabetes. There is sense in concentrating effort on communicable diseases. Failure to do so could result in an epidemic that wipes everyone out.

Answer 7

Coz diabetes will not spread if a diabetic person has what sort of close relation, but AIDS is dangerous and can spread with or without knowing. Govts are doing a decent job i suppose.

Answer 8

you are pretending that "causes" are measured by government, that government can think and you forgot about outside influences. Money does not eqwual success anyway.

AIDS/HIV is "in" and probably less understood than diabetes though there is no cure. You forgot about Lobbyists and money and power and the media.

So, there is no balance because everybody has their own cause, torch to carry or camera to chase.

There is no relationship.

Answer 9

Ummmm......

Because the government are a bunch of Whack-jobs, who need to be piledrived, in the hope that if you hit their head hard enough, it'll knock some sense into them.

Because We've been unable to find a cure after so long for diabetes, that they've given up hope.

The government is made up of a bunch of people that are secretly homosexuals, and got aids from their homosexual partners, and want a cure.

Three possible answers... Take your pick....

Or maybe... I'm just another phycotic weirdo rambling on and on....

The answers sound fine to me.... but I'm weird.

No... I'm not weird.... I'm normal and everyone ELSE in the world is weird.
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Edit:To the crazy chick with the post under me... how does anything i say make me ''homophobic''?Perhaps you should go for the Piledriver idea... Might help ya'....
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Edit:I guess my somewhat strange sense of humor is wasted on you humorless people...

Answer 10

Good question. My mom and brother both have diabetes, and my mom's is severe. Every few years I hear people saying they are on the brink of a cure, so I stay hopeful. But so much damage has already been done by the illness to my family.

Oh, and my mom and brother are thin. In fact, my brother is downright skinny and always has been. I'm fat and I don't have it. Go figure.