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Worldwide Spending

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Wino

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Worldwide pneumonia kills 2 million children under the age of five and diarrheal diseases kill another 1.5 million kids. Pneumonia detected early can be easily treated with cheap antibiotic. There is also a vaccine available. Diarrhea kills a child because of dehydration. A simple fluid replacement of clean water mixed with salt and sugar can solve this problem, yet the problem persists. In 2006 AIDS spending worldwide was $9 billion where maternal, newborn and child health care spending was about $3.5 billion. Is this wise?

Read more at http://news.yahoo.co...rgotten_killers

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It never has made sense to me how much attention we give to AIDS when, strictly from a threat perspective, cancer and heart disease affect far more people. Heart disease kills 11 million people worldwide every year and cancer kills 7 million, while AIDS kills slightly over 2 million. I'm not trying to take anything away from AIDS research or from the people who have it (God knows I would want help if I had it) but when resources are so limited, it just seems to make sense that our priorities should be focused on dealing with the diseases that kill the most people. However, AIDS has become such a politically powerful issue -- due, in large part, I think, to how it was ignored by the establishment for so long -- that it's career suicide to argue against increased research funding.

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You are right, put the money where it will do the most good. This article points out that we can easily prevent these deaths by cheap antibiotics and a simple sugar/salt solution with clean water. 3.5 million kids worldwide could be saved.

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