Why it's time to stop worrying about breast cancer and AIDS
Other diseases which kill far more people need attention too.
Nobody wants to die early. Unfortunately, early death is part of reality. Most victims are simply unlucky, and some are bearing the consequences of poor choices. Every case is tragic. Yet, what is most tragic of all may be the intense focus on the wrong diseases. Dollars spent to research cures of diseases affiliated with popular causes that kill few, means less to spend researching cures for the killers of many.
Obama adorned the White House with a pink ribbon last October. Absent were green and periwinkle ribbons.
PrintLOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - We love to focus on the wrong diseases. HIV/AIDS, and breast cancer come to mind. These are indeed serious diseases that need funding to develop research and cures, however, they enjoy the good fortune of broad public awareness and brilliant marketing campaigns initiated by activists. As a result, research and cures for these illnesses are better funded and researched than many other diseases that kill far more people.
There is a tendency, and it isn't just in the United States, to focus on the wrong diseases. In many poor countries, tuberculosis and malaria, both serious killers that claim some two million lives per year, garner the most headlines. Politicians in those countries promise ever more finding and initiatives to combat these diseases while other, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) kill millions more.
Heart disease and other forms of cancer, besides breast cancer, kill the majority of people worldwide.
According to the World Health Organization, breast cancer kills less than 500,000 people worldwide each year. Meanwhile, over 7 million deaths were reported from other types of cancer, with lung, stomach, liver, and colorectal cancer each killing more individually then breast cancer.
AIDS kills about 1.8 million people per year while hypertension is responsible for 13 percent of all deaths worldwide, slightly more than all cancers combined. Heart disease of various forms kill about one-third of all people.
This means chances are you will die from a heart attack or another cancer, rather than breast cancer or AIDS. Despite that, charitable drives and public awareness campaigns garner hundreds of millions of dollars to fight these diseases. Everybody knows the pink ribbon is for breast cancer awareness and the red ribbon for HIV/AIDS. They even have special days and months dedicated to their awareness.
What color ribbon does hypertension get? What month is kidney disease awareness month? You'd be hard pressed to find the person on the street who knows.
For the record, Kidney Awareness Month is March (green ribbon) and Heart Disease Month is February (periwinkle ribbon). Where are their commercials and charitable drives? How many green and periwinkle ribbons do you see celebrities wearing?
Non-communicable diseases are the world's largest killers, by far. The poor also tend to be disproportionally victimized by those diseases. Poor nutrition, lack of access to preventable health care services, costly medications that are difficult to obtain, these factors all conspire against those in low socioeconomic standing to bring early deaths to people, and that's just in America.
Five years ago, the United Nations set forth a declaration that they wished to see deaths from NCDs reduced by 25 percent worldwide by the year 2025. While momentum has built, thin finances and the politics of disease have hampered success.
Much of the money sent to Africa for example, has been to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Without a question, that epidemic is serious, but fortunately the world is inching closer to a cure even as we speak.
At the same time, it must be appreciated that other diseases kill more Africans than AIDS. Perhaps the time has come to reevaluate what resources are being spent on fighting less deadly, yet more widely popular diseases, and devote an increasing share to those diseases which affect greater numbers of people.
In other words, the proposal is to take a little from the rich, pet causes that are popular with politicians and celebrities, and spend that money on diseases that are far more likely to kill you and your family.
Some private organizations aren't waiting for the government to catch up. One new startup organization known as "Buy a Dose, Give a Dose" is preparing to allow individuals to purchase medicines that will be shipped to humanitarian missions around the world. Vaccinations for children, flu shots for the elderly, medications to treat hypertension, and chemotherapy, will be available alongside treatments for malaria, polio, and HIV/AIDS.
Recipients can be located anywhere in the world where humanitarian missions operate to distribute the medications, which will even include low-cost and charitable clinics in the United States.
For now, such endeavors remain in their infancy, barely preparing to launch this year. However, governments and people can act now to stem the toll NCDs take. The best course of action would be to recognize that NCDs are far more likely to kill you and your loved ones, and that a new emphasis must be placed on treating and preventing these illnesses, worldwide.
Millions of doses of HIV drugs are sent to the third world each year, but what about drugs to treat hypertension? What about chemotherapy for cancer victims, and dialysis treatments for those with kidney disease. The world needs more of those too.
For millions of people who die this year, the shift in thinking will come too late. For many others however, there is still time for people to save others, and themselves, that is if they think clearly enough - and act appropriately.
© 2013, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.
There is a tendency, and it isn't just in the United States, to focus on the wrong diseases. In many poor countries, tuberculosis and malaria, both serious killers that claim some two million lives per year, garner the most headlines. Politicians in those countries promise ever more finding and initiatives to combat these diseases while other, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) kill millions more.
Heart disease and other forms of cancer, besides breast cancer, kill the majority of people worldwide.
According to the World Health Organization, breast cancer kills less than 500,000 people worldwide each year. Meanwhile, over 7 million deaths were reported from other types of cancer, with lung, stomach, liver, and colorectal cancer each killing more individually then breast cancer.
AIDS kills about 1.8 million people per year while hypertension is responsible for 13 percent of all deaths worldwide, slightly more than all cancers combined. Heart disease of various forms kill about one-third of all people.
This means chances are you will die from a heart attack or another cancer, rather than breast cancer or AIDS. Despite that, charitable drives and public awareness campaigns garner hundreds of millions of dollars to fight these diseases. Everybody knows the pink ribbon is for breast cancer awareness and the red ribbon for HIV/AIDS. They even have special days and months dedicated to their awareness.
What color ribbon does hypertension get? What month is kidney disease awareness month? You'd be hard pressed to find the person on the street who knows.
For the record, Kidney Awareness Month is March (green ribbon) and Heart Disease Month is February (periwinkle ribbon). Where are their commercials and charitable drives? How many green and periwinkle ribbons do you see celebrities wearing?
Non-communicable diseases are the world's largest killers, by far. The poor also tend to be disproportionally victimized by those diseases. Poor nutrition, lack of access to preventable health care services, costly medications that are difficult to obtain, these factors all conspire against those in low socioeconomic standing to bring early deaths to people, and that's just in America.
Five years ago, the United Nations set forth a declaration that they wished to see deaths from NCDs reduced by 25 percent worldwide by the year 2025. While momentum has built, thin finances and the politics of disease have hampered success.
Much of the money sent to Africa for example, has been to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Without a question, that epidemic is serious, but fortunately the world is inching closer to a cure even as we speak.
At the same time, it must be appreciated that other diseases kill more Africans than AIDS. Perhaps the time has come to reevaluate what resources are being spent on fighting less deadly, yet more widely popular diseases, and devote an increasing share to those diseases which affect greater numbers of people.
In other words, the proposal is to take a little from the rich, pet causes that are popular with politicians and celebrities, and spend that money on diseases that are far more likely to kill you and your family.
Some private organizations aren't waiting for the government to catch up. One new startup organization known as "Buy a Dose, Give a Dose" is preparing to allow individuals to purchase medicines that will be shipped to humanitarian missions around the world. Vaccinations for children, flu shots for the elderly, medications to treat hypertension, and chemotherapy, will be available alongside treatments for malaria, polio, and HIV/AIDS.
Recipients can be located anywhere in the world where humanitarian missions operate to distribute the medications, which will even include low-cost and charitable clinics in the United States.
For now, such endeavors remain in their infancy, barely preparing to launch this year. However, governments and people can act now to stem the toll NCDs take. The best course of action would be to recognize that NCDs are far more likely to kill you and your loved ones, and that a new emphasis must be placed on treating and preventing these illnesses, worldwide.
Millions of doses of HIV drugs are sent to the third world each year, but what about drugs to treat hypertension? What about chemotherapy for cancer victims, and dialysis treatments for those with kidney disease. The world needs more of those too.
For millions of people who die this year, the shift in thinking will come too late. For many others however, there is still time for people to save others, and themselves, that is if they think clearly enough - and act appropriately.
© 2013, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.
- - -
Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.
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Good article, but incorrect conclusion; it is not time to STOP worrying about these dideases, but rather, in imitation of Christ, to depoliticize health care, remove the profit motive and to broaden the scope of our concern for the medical wellbeing of our brothers and sisters.
The idea that research into ANY deadly disease is a "waste of time" is an unholy lie unworthy of a Christian heart.
Thank you for an article that is saying what I have been saying for the past 20 years. AIDS research is a complete waste of time and money. We all know how we can get AIDS and how we can avoid getting AIDS. But we don't know how not to get cancer. There are people who lived reasonably healthy lives who get cancer. We should not spend another penny on AIDS but concentrate all resources on cures for cancer and other deadly diseases.
I guess my wife and I are one of the "unlucky" ones as she was diagnosed in April 2012 with stage IV breast cancer while she was 10 weeks pregnant. She is now 36 years old and is a mother to our 3 young children aged 7, 5, and 2. We lost the baby at 12 weeks because of this devastating disease. We have recently learned that her cancer has now spread to her brain. I pray that no family should ever have to go through something as terrible as this. Struck in the prime of her life my wife now courageously battles this disease that "kills less than 500,000 worldwide each year". Doctors don't even recommend a mammogram until women are at least 40, we had no warning signs the cancer was present and rapidly spreading in her body. Now she fights to live, to watch her children grow. Cancer is a terrible thing, all forms of it. 10 years ago her diagnosis of Her2 positive breast cancer was a death sentence, but thanks to the awareness and fundraising for research a new drug, Pertuzumab gained FDA approval in June of 2012. My wife was one of the first to receive this live saving drug. Now thanks to more research another new chemo drug, TDM1 which is also for her specific type of breast cancer, will hopefully gain FDA approval on Feb. 26, 2013. God bless all those who have donated to the research for a cure for breast cancer. You can donate to the Edith Sanford Breast Cancer Foundation where all of the proceeds go directly to research. http://edithsanford.org/
I pray everyday for a cure for not only my wife and other women fighting breast cancer but for those women who will face this in the future. We are closer to a cure than ever. Due to increased awareness fewer women are dying of breast cancer as early detection is vital to stopping this disease from advancing.
This article was obviously written by someone who has never known anyone fighting breast cancer. I challenge you to go to your local cancer clinic and look around at all of the women you see in there and then you can come back and tell me we are focused on the wrong diseases. You look at a young mother who wants nothing more than to just be with her family
and watch her kids grow and tell her that the research dedicated to breast cancer is not worthwhile. Our lifestyle choices did not bring this diagnosis to our lives, there is nothing we could have done to prevent this. So we will proudly wear our pink gear and continue to pray for and support those who are working hard to stop this disease from taking even one more wife, mother, daughter, or sister from us. It is worth the effort and money because we are saving lives.
The essence of this article was simply to bring to awareness the erroneous logic present inside human beings who often pick and choose pet projects based on value statements, public opinion, popular opinion, emotions, political and celebrity propaganda; instead of on reason, faith, and facts. It's a little like calling your dog a protector and cute animal, while the twin next door (your neighbor's dog) is a loud, barking, meddlesome nuisance. Or, if your hockey team won then it was a good match. If your hockey team lost, then it was disappointing. (while the reality is that it is men being paid to put compressed rubber between 2 pipes with a tailored piece of lumber; on both sides of the ice surface; wearing different colored jerseys) Meanwhile, in certain countries nobody knows who certain sports stars are and everyone knows who other celebrities are depending on whatever is popular in that land. This article FEELS callous, but is in reality simply making a point about subjectivity based on often pet projects, themes, emotions, opinions; which is precisely what politicians, the media, journalists (usually, unwittingly), spin doctors, marketers, do. It soon declines into sentimentality, not objective truth seeking. It's often seen as terrorism if someone attacks you, but it is self defense and pro-active preemptive striking if you attack another. Humans are generally nuts. That's why these articles are necessary. Classical, jazz, blues, country, soul, pop, or rap music? And what about rock? I have my preferences, but do not claim to possess the absolute truth as to which genre is to be listened to all the time. Salt water fish or beef or chicken and which part of the cow or chicken? To which degrees? No long ago, white rice was a status symbol in certain lands in part because it involved more labour and the wealthy ate it more often. These days, brown rice is a status symbol since it is healthier. In some cult-ures, having a suntan is a sign of wealth. (like northern people going to Hawaii in the winter to then come back looking brown.) In other cult-ures, having no tan in the summer is a sometimes perceived sign of wealth since it means one is not a labourer or doesn't have to go outside during the hot summer months. A sun-tan is sought after with some, while avoided like the plague by some other cult-ures. What's the absolute truth on this subject matter? Is having a suntan a sign of wealth, status, poverty, being a grunt, some of both, neither, or case by case, or completely irrelevant? It's often subjective based on cult-ure, opinion, and not on reason, facts, faith, and truth. Cancer and Aids are indeed important. The other 100s of diseases are as well. This was the point of this article.
Paul-Emile Leray
I've made this same argument to friends and family for years. Even as they see loved ones fall to these more common causes of death, they still deny the logic of putting resources to the most numerous killers of man and not just a few favored diseases. I've spoken to cancer researchers who bemoan the fact they struggle with little funds while their coworkers addressing breast cancer have more money than they know what to do with. It is a shame that celebs and the shallow media of this nation distract us from putting our money where it could do the most good.
I completely agree. I am a former HIV/AIDS researcher. I lost my interest in the research when I found that the doctors at the Infectious Diseases Department of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and the Veterans Administration Hospitals of Cincinnati (my former colleagues) regularly perscribe ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION Medications (such as Viagra) to HIV/AIDS patients undergoing anti-retroviral therapy. A side effect to anti-retro virus therapy is reduced vascular function, therefore there is a reduced ability to conduct male sexual relations. My comment to the Infectious Diseases Dept physicians was, why not give these patients machine guns! Can you imagine this level of disorder? The physicians charged with preventing infectious diseases are enabling the spread of AIDS. Of course, the Hippocratic oath, which pledges to do no harm is ancient history to medical academics.
At LAST! Someone speaks up!
Their voices are muted with all the nonsense about breast cancer awareness--as if we're not AWARE of it, already, with pink stuff all over the marketplace--but there's a group of women who are breast cancer survivors who have NOTHING but bad to say about the whole "pink"
nonsense. When you combine those very real human feelings from SURVIVORS with the fact that, for instance, only 2% of the money raised by the NFL "pink" gear actually goes to breast cancer research--and that's to Komen, which is at best a shadow organization--it's time to stop with the "pink" already. Ditto for AIDS awareness. There isn't a person on the planet who isn't AWARE of AIDS--and how evil anyone is for daring to suggest that abstinence is a VERY potent preventative of it, how it's still primarily a homosexual disease, etc. Yes, I know innocent victims of AIDS are out there--we can't help but know that. And we're not saying to CUT funding to these causes if, in fact, the funding is going where it's supposed to go (which is doubtful). But diabetes kills more people every year than breast cancer and AIDS combined. Where's the Diabetes Awareness ribbon? You have fundraisers for JDRF, but what about adult diabetes? That's a lifestyle disease, you say? Well...in the majority of cases...so is AIDS. But even if it weren't, aren't we interested in saving more lives, rather than just ones that are dictated to be "more worthy" than others? Thank you for saying this. It may be just the tip of the iceberg, but I sure hope it catches on.
What a shameful and callous article. And what an awful and thoughtless headline. Of course it would be nice to fund more research for all illnesses but why are you suggesting one should be at the expense of the other. Stop worrying about Breast Cancer and AIDS? What a uniquely in-Christian idea.
Yes! Praise the Lord! Finally somebody is bringing this to light! I've been saying it for years now. And I dare to say that Breast Cancer Awareness is a feminist ploy, even if it started out with legitimate cause, it has been hijacked. But I doubt it's legitimate cause. All cancer is bad. Prostate cancer is arguably worse than breast cancer but you hear NOTHING about it. Heart disease is worse than all of the above and we hardly hear about "Heart Disease Awareness." Not to mention the blatant and appalling connections between Susan G. Komen and Planned Parenthood. These people are radical feminist abortionists. And then there's AIDs awareness - which has been turned into a ploy furthering the sexual revolution. FREE CONDOMS for all. Disturbing. How about this? How about people stop having sex outside of marriage!? How about those afflicted with the disease, even if married, take vows of celibacy for the Lord!?