Why are we using so much money to find a cure for AIDS??

I know that AIDS kills millions of people every year, but can't we agree that most people who have AIDS got it from their own actions?
I KNOW some children are born with AIDS, and I KNOW a (very) small percentage of people get it from blood transfusions, but most people get it from promiscuous sex and dangerous drugs.

Why are we spending millions of dollars on a disease that has a cure? If everyone did not have sex until they were married, and then only had sex with their wife, the AIDS epidemic would be gone in 2, 3 generations, tops. Why are we spending so much money?

Give me $3 Million dollars. I just found the cure for AIDS. STOP HAVING SEX and STOP USING DRUGS. Can someone explain this to me? The only explanation I can think of is the whole "we are not responsible for our own actions" mentality that has gripped this nation.

I have found this graph:
http://campus.murraystate.edu/academic/f...
but it is WAY out of date.

Does someone have a more recent finding of the information in this graph. According to this, no more than 8% of people who get AIDS are not at fault.

And PLEASE do not lecture me on how AIDS is not a "gay disease". I KNOW it is not a gay disease, and I KNOW this graph is outdated.

I think the answer lies in Chris Rock's stand-up comedy routine on the "Bigger and Blacker" DVD: it's not about finding a cure, it's about keeping doctors and the drug companies rich by continuously TREATING it. Once you're cured, unless you contract the disease again, you have no need for treatment medication. Possible evidence: can you remember a time when there was not a single prescription drug commercial on TV? You only found out about them from your doctor? I remember feeling horrified when my doctor prescribed me Valtrex--the herpes medication--for a reoccuring fever blister. The commercials say nothing about it helping fever blisters and cold sores, even though the same virus that causes those is a simpler form of the STD herpes.

There are just one too many people who want to live their lives not caring about themselves and/or others. Too lazy to take the proper precautions. Unfortunately, it takes contracting the virus for these same people to realize what a mistake it can be.

The old "squeaky wheel" adage applies here me thinks.

I think instead of trying to cure AIDS we should start teaching AIDS prevention. I mean, if you have AIDS, why do you go have sex with someone and give AIDS to them?

Alot of people get cancer from their own actions. should we stop looking for a cure there?
Diabetes as well. People over-eat and end up with diabetes. Many things. Spinal cord injuries from driving too fast and crashing. I could go on and on.
What do we fund and what dont we fund?

agreed. same with type 2 diabetes, 9 out of 10 people that have it got it because they are fat and lazy yet people act like its such a tragedy. 70% of heart disease is also preventable, and about half of cancers are as well. really there would be a less disease in the world if people just got their acts together. the thing that really pisses me off about AIDs is that there are all kinds of programs to get free drugs for uninsured people but for other diseases that may not be preventable, the uninsured are just told tough luck.

your graph is probably fairly accurate as far as the % of preventable cases go, the only difference in the last 10 years is that homosexual and heterosexual sex are about even in cause of transmission now instead of being really lopsided to homosexual sex. i think its still 20-30% from drug use

Did you know that most women that get aids get if from their husband who is a closet gay??? And lots of health care professionals get it from helping someone who has AIDS...

And you know what, I'll betcha if someone you loved got aids (not thru their own actions) you'd be out there screaming for a cure!

And you know what, if just one small child or baby that gets AIDS can be cured, that's enough.

And since we're at it, have you considered that the cost to our health systems (which we end up paying in taxes!) is astronomical! Which means private money used to find a cure is a GODSEND!

Get it???????????

While AIDS is a horrifying disease, you are right, nearly everyone who contracts it could have avoided it thorugh their own actions. I don't mind funding AIDS cure research but I think we need to keep it in perspective. It kills far fewer people annually than cancer, heart disease, and strokes. Worldwide, it even kills fewer people than Malaria and other diseases we've virtually erradiacted in America. But because AIDS largely affects a politically protected "minority" (homosexuals are not a race or even cultural group) and is politically charged, it is political suicide to put AIDS research funding in that proper perspective. I so empathize for people whose lives have been affected by AIDS but no more or less than those who've suffered from cancer.

Well you certainly make a point. The money would be better spent trying to find a cure for cancer, autism, MS, or countless other diseases that don't have exact known causes. But ultimately, it is an issue of politics. Education would prevent this disease from spreading. But then education would prevent a lot of things that are otherwise "epidemics". People do not want to take responsibility for their actions...and they won't let their kids take the responsibility either...which is why schools now are so frought with violence and stupidity. Kids learn early on that they don't have to pay consequences for their actions. And the result in adulthood is a horrific, selfish person who has little or no regard for anyone else.

Unfortunately, educated people don't let others walk all over them though. And that would be bad for politicians. That's why when things get really really bad for people there is often a revolution of sorts. The school of hard knocks is good at educating people. But if they can keep us fat and happy, then hopefully we just won't notice (or will ignore) how corrupt things have gotten.

Your comment about it not being a gay disease is not entirely accurate, but it does not deserve criticism.

Globally speaking, AIDS has spread throughout all communities, but North America remains an exception as, even though other causes of its spread are rising in mumber, homosexual behaviour continues to be the most common factor in new AIDS cases.

AIDS is, indeed, spread by sexual contact and drug praphernalia such as needles, but the often larger problem is not limited to those with the disease, but the effects on families and on society, as worthwhile people are first removed from the workplace, and costs to employers are incurred. After that, the disease makes them worse, slowly reducing them to being unable to help themselves, and family members and friends have to be there to help them. Additionally, many public health resources are spent on continuing to help them.

In some countries, because of privacy laws, and a lot of political correctness, there is no legal requirement for afflicted people to disclose their condition, so the disease can be spread to other people who would not suspect its existence. Qualifying that, the disease may not surface immediately so those who do acquire it may not even know they have it, and so it gets spread unwittingly, and unknowingly.

In addition, AIDS is not a single, easily identifiable and controlled entity, but one that changes frequently, mutating into something different each time, and it does this quicker than some other diseases.

It is also true that condoms are not 100% proof against anything, so even though precautions are taken, disease can still be spread.

All of the money dedicated to AIDS is not necessarily spent on research, with a considerable amount going to education, and attempts to change societal standards in so-called third world countries, where women are treated very poorly, and have few rights, or even no rights at all.

The points made about solving AIDS may appear accurate, but they are subject to perspective, meaning your personal locale, and such a perspective would be dramatically different where you in one of the countries where the disease runs rampant, and destroys entire villages or towns.

It really is a very serious problem.

You are overlooking the vast majority of AIDS sufferers, which are in Africa. There are millions of innocent children dying from AIDS. Why do you lack compassion and are so judgemental?
The real reason there is so much research for a cure for AIDS is the same reason they are pushing Viagra. The phameceutical companies want to make a profit.