Comparing funding for Alzheimer's and AIDS research

This month is the 25^th anniversary of the first reports of AIDS.  I sat next to a former public health official and AIDS activist on a recent flight from Tampa to Charlotte.  We talked about how dementia is sometimes called an epidemic, just like AIDS.  AIDS in the early 1980’s had some similarities with dementia and Alzheimer’s in 2006:  

• The cause was unknown
• There were no drugs that allowed people with the disease to lead normal lives
• There was no cure. 

While there’s still no cure for AIDS, we now know that the HIV virus causes the disease and we know how the virus is transmitted.  There are effective drugs to treat the symptoms.  That progress has been made thanks to government and private funding for research.

 

In the US alone, 4.5 million people have Alzheimer’s disease.  About a quarter of that number, or one million people have HIV or AIDS.  Yet annual federal government spending on Alzheimer’s research is $647 million, compared with $2.7 billion for AIDS research.   That’s $2700 per year in government research funding for each American with HIV or AIDS, $144 per year for each American with Alzheimer’s.

 

I asked my seatmate why research to prevent and treat dementia receives less funding than AIDS research. “We were very vocal in demanding answers about AIDS,” he answered.  “You need a lot of grass-roots activism.”  That kind of activism is difficult for people who suffer from dementia.

Comments

[JEANNE l. lEE]

Aloha This is so impressive and all the more reason for a group of persons with dementia and carepartners in the early stages to get out there and be heard. You are doing a great job. Thank you I was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1995 at the age of 54 and still, although not easily, helping others with awareness with my lectures and my book. I will send you the title if you wish.