AIDS vs. Cancer

Every dollar spent trying to cure AIDS is a dollar wasted that could have been spent trying to cure cancer. Cancer is the scourge of modern man - not AIDS.

Let's compare. Cancer can strike people of all ages, of all races, of all countries, of both genders, of all fitness/health levels, at any time. Aside from a small group of people that get HIV from transfusions or medical personnel that are exposed, the overwhelming majority of people that acquire the HIV virus do so from drug needles or sex. And the important word in that last sentence is "acquire", because although some people are practically asking for cancer whether they know it or not, you have to go out and get HIV. There are super-fit health nuts that die of cancer at very young ages, not just chain smokers. So, right there you have a disease that can get you no matter what you do, and one that would be eradicated if people stopped using hypodermic needles for drugs and having extramarital sex. Do you see a difference there? I sure as Hell do.

And I doubt there is a single person out there that doesn't personally know someone that has had cancer, or knows someone that knows someone that has had cancer. Chances are if you don't know any homosexuals, or people that work in medicine, you don't know anyone that has had AIDS or knew someone with AIDS. But...if you live in Africa you may know lots of everyday people with AIDS. There's a simple reason for that - male dominated societies in which the men can't keep their dicks in their pants, and the women can't fight back.

I don't know. AIDS is horrible, and fighting disease (any disease) is honorable. As I've gotten older, though, I've met no one (at least, no one I'm aware of) that has AIDS. Yet, the number of people I've known that have or had cancer continues to grow. And virtually everyone I meet knows someone that has had cancer. I shudder to think how many people have seen someone they know die from cancer.

When it comes down to it, I value simplicity. Simply put, AIDS would eventually go away if people simply modified their behavior a little, and made two simple choices: don't use needles for drugs, and don't sleep around. How simple is that? Combined with better blood screening methods AIDS would eventually disappear. Even if we find a cure for cancer, it will always be with the human race.

There's an alarming trend in the male homosexual community (no jokes please). The number of young, gay men with AIDS is rising. In an age where you'd have to be deaf and blind not to know that HIV can kill you, there are more and more young gays having unprotected sex and contracting HIV. Why? Because modern medications that have prolonged the lives of HIV victims and lessened the effect of the virus have fooled men into thinking that AIDS is not something to worry about. "It won't kill you", "you can live with it", etc. What it shows is that ignorance and a misunderstanding of the risks are leading to more AIDS cases globally.

I don't want people to die from AIDS. I'm fully aware of what it does, and I have just as much sympanthy for people that watch a loved one die from AIDS as do those from cancer. But it seems to me that for a lot less money than is being spent to cure or vaccinate against it we could save a lot more lives right now with better education and screening.

And that extra money could be spent curing cancer, or any number of other disease that are not so easily avoided. If anyone is actually reading this blog I'd love to know how you feel about this. Am I being too pragmatic? Am I being heartless? Or am I simply calling things as they are?