I tend to think of diseases in two ways: (1) one type, you acquire through everyday, normal routines. Washing hands will reduce risk, but, sooner or later you're still going to catch a cold, or the flu, or get pneumonia. Sometimes you might get salmonella, e-coli, or Legionaries for example--not through your own fault, but through someone else's oversight. Additionally, kids interacting with other kids usually get a whole host of nasty things, especially if they aren't immunized. The other option for this type is that you are unlucky, have bad genetics, whatever and wind up with some rare disease like ALS. Category (2) focuses on the behavior of the individual. Here, I'm talking about STDs, cirrhosis of the liver, dental issues, di-uh-beet-us, obesity. To put another way, your behavior/personal choices had a lot to do with you catching this disease. For example, if you hadn't shot up meth, you wouldn't have hepatitis C right now; or, if you hadn't drank a 5th every day, you wouldn't have a cirrhotic liver, or, if you hadn't smoked a pack a day, your lungs wouldn't be failing. So, I have a big problem when politics plays a role in handing out tax dollars to subsidize the treatment of people who have engaged in behavior that led to their illness. To put another way, someone who makes poor decisions winds up in a bad situation resulting from those decisions (you can apply mortgage defaults or bankruptcies here too). But, because the group making these bad decisions share a politically favorable characteristic, tax payers are forced to bail them out. CDC awards $55M for YMSM of color 09/27/2011 01:00 PM EDT The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today awarded $55 million over five years to 34 community-based organizations (CBOs) to expand HIV prevention services for young gay and bisexual men of color, transgender youth of color, and their partners. The awards expand upon a previous program to reach these populations with an increase of $10 million to fund a larger number of community organizations. The average award for each organization is approximately $300,000 per year. HRSA awards $1.80B for HIV/AIDS activities 09/26/2011 01:00 PM EDT The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced the release of more than $1.89 billion to ensure that people living with HIV/AIDS continue to have access to life-saving health care and medications. The grants are funded through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, which helps more than half a million individuals each year obtain clinical care, treatment and social support services.
No amount of blood money can prevent the natural 'cleaning of the gene pool' that Mother Nature does from time to time.
