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NEWS > HEALTH > AIDS LOSES LUSTRE AFTER BEING EXPOSED AS A BULLY

AIDS LOSES LUSTRE AFTER BEING EXPOSED AS A BULLY

December 2 2008

London, UK – AIDS and HIV have for decades been one of the most prominent and ubiquitous of diseases. Outside cancer, there hasn’t been a disease that has captured the public’s attention and interest so thoroughly as AIDS has done. From celebrity endorsements to utter domination in research grants, AIDS and HIV have been a one-two punch that has cemented its place as the triple-A virus. Now though, as the global infection rates start to decline and treatments become more and more effective, critics are are starting to bring bare their syringes.

“Diarrhoea kills five times as many kids as AIDS,” said John Oldfield, executive vice president of Washington, D.C. based Water Advocates that promotes clean water and sanitation. “Everybody talks about AIDS at cocktail parties but nobody wants to hear about diarrhoea.”

Other diseases such as malaria, measles, and pneumonia have long been suffering under the very long shadow that AIDS casts, soaking up the majority of grants and donations leaving only scraps for arguably more dangerous diseases. Even in the most HIV infected continent, Africa, malaria is by far the largest killer.

“By putting more money into AIDS, we are implicitly saying it's OK for more kids to die of pneumonia,” said Roger England of Health Systems Workshop, a think tank based in the Caribbean island of Grenada. “The global HIV industry is too big and out of control. We have created a monster with too many vested interests and reputations at stake... too many relatively well paid HIV staff in affected countries, and too many rock stars with AIDS support as a fashion accessory.”

And while much of those dollars have gone towards the current declining reach of the disease, much of the funds are allocated to special projects like HIV ribbons.
“We don’t see people walking around with diarrhoea ribbons or see movies about people dying from leishmaniasis,” continued England. “The days of AIDS and HIV dominance has to come to an end for the good of all diseases.”

Others though disagree with England, arguing that having a prominent ailment helps bring exposure to smaller and less desirable diseases.

“It’s like Hollywood having huge big budget movies. They may or may not make money off those films, but it keeps people interested in going to the theatres and that ultimately helps movies of all sizes,” said David Helmbert of the London based RDUSC. “The big boys take in a lot of water, but they also help keep the lake filled. HIV coming to the forefront in the eighties was the best thing to happen to disease research since the black plague. The interest in finding the cure has led to a whole new generation of researchers and virologists, as well as people willing to part with their money. Without AIDS we’d run the risk of people forgetting about diseases entirely and then there would be people dying left right and centre. Either that or we’d just have boring old cancer to talk about.”

While there have been other ailments, such as mad cow or flesh eating bacteria, that have come into the public eye, none have been able to wrest public attention from HIV.

“AIDS is like the United States of diseases. The young buck who comes around and grabs all the attention but eventually its influence will dwindle,” said Scrape TV Health analyst Rebecca Phelps. “Britain and Russia would be cancer. While places like India and China, with their disease equivalents Diarrhoea and Malaria, are up and comers, the world is still dominated by the stalwarts. There may come a day when people wear Diarrhoea ribbons we aren’t there yet. There will come a day when a major celebrity will die of something other than cancer or AIDS and a whole new light will be shone on it. I have my money on some kind of brain parasite but we will see.”   

Lauren Hebert, Health Correspondent

NEWS > HEALTH > AIDS LOSES LUSTRE AFTER BEING EXPOSED AS A BULLY