Today's Headline News Lance Armstrong asks President Bush for $1 Billion In a recent interview on the Larry King television show, 7-time Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong, disclosed that he rode in an automobile with President Bush and discussed research allocations. Did Mr. Armstrong ask for more fair and equitable distributions, which would benefit all patients. No. He asked the President for a billion more dollars for research on his disease of interest only: cancer. Presently the National Institutes of Health lists cancer associated funding totaling 5.641 billion dollars, which is 19 percent of the entire federal research budget. That leaves 81 percent to be divided by all other diseases, including six thousand rare diseases that get little funding. Should research allocations be decided by who knows and meets the President? To see a short video of other celebrities asking a President to favor their disease of interest, click here.

FAIR's New "Facts" Page

Take a moment to view FAIR Board member Jim Ward's powerful, informative pie chart and graph that depict disproportionate governmental research spending. You'll note that Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) has been added due to its receiving poor funding. It is an amazing tribute to Jim's courage and spirit that he has had nineteen stents to clear blocked coronary arteries. It will come as no surprise that he is our patient advocate in support of increased research dollars for cardiovascular disease.

HIV/AIDS in Switzerland

Occasionally we take a look at the global situation with HIV/AIDS as we point out that the cure globally is not more research, but the same solutions that have dropped the death rate dramatically in the USA, namely, prevention education, providing existing drugs and harm reduction policies. How many AIDS cases were there in Switzerland in 2004? 300. How many HIV cases? 741. How many deaths in the most recent reported period of 2001? 117. Full report: Click on Zurich.

Response to AIDS Drugs Has Improved Greatly

At least 80 percent of patients taking AIDS medicines now achieve low viral count and the rate of new opportunistic infections has declined to 10 percent. This is clear evidence of why the death rate in California's newly infected patients has dropped a dramatic 97 percent to 275 as of July 31, 2005. It is also continuing evidence of the inappropriateness of present funding in which ten percent of the federal research budget is going to HIV/AIDS alone. Click here for the story.

Front Page LA Times Health Article on
Presumed Consent  quotes FAIR Board Members

The FAIR Foundation is working to help organ transplant patients as well as to insure fair and equitable research distributions for all who are ill. In this front-page article from the Los Angeles Times Health Section, FAIR Board members, Dave Courtney (left) and Dr. Darling, are quoted on the need for the new organ donor policy of Presumed Consent (PC). To view it, click on Dave's oxygen tube, which he needs due to his having Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency. Alpha-1 is a significant contributor to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, and Alpha-1 alone is one of the most common and serious hereditary disorders in the world. Dave is also Vice President of the Presumed Consent Foundation.

NIH Releases Ethics Rules

In past letters to the Congressional Committee overseeing National Institutes of Health (NIH) ethics (A) and to the NIH Director (B), the FAIR Foundation has called for tighter restrictions that would end the practice of scientists taking money from pharmaceutical companies for researching certain drugs. In some instances, AIDS and other patients were prescribed such drugs without full disclosure that the research scientists had financial ties to the product. Click here to read of the new, improved rules for which NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, MD, deserves praise.

UK Study Finds HIV Patients Co-infected with
Hepatitis C More Likely to Progress to AIDS

Yet another study illustrates the need to eliminate the disparity in research funding for hepatitis C ($118 million) versus HIV/AIDS ($2.93 Billion). Full Story: click on the aidsmap logo.

Soapbox Ads Educate America and
Attract even more FAIR Members

FAIR's members are continuing to utilize a free service to contact President Bush and VP Cheney for fair allocations in research, and at the same time they are alerting thousands on the need for change. See a recent "Soapbox Alert" to citizens suffering from every disease except HIV/AIDS here and send the alert to President Bush and VP Cheney today! 

Where have HIV/AIDS funding dollars gone?

Although dated, this eye-opening report by Kerrie Rezak as reported to the CAGW (Citizens Against Government Waste) provides information on dozens of dubious “programs” that received large funding dollars for HIV/AIDS programs.
 

Focus Disease of the Month: Diabetes

• Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life.

• Diabetes is deadly; it kills more Americans than AIDS and breast cancer combined!

• Diabetes symptoms: excessive thirst, extreme hunger, unusual weight loss, extreme fatigue, frequent urination, blurry vision and irritability. You can also take the American Diabetes Association's Online Diabetes Risk Test to find out if you are at risk for diabetes.

• Diabetes is serious; it is the number one cause of blindness, kidney disease and stroke. In fact, more than 65% of people with diabetes die from heart disease or stroke.

• Diabetes and Genetics: Does genetics play a role in both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes? Yes! For a full explanation from the ADA, click here.

• Diabetes is costly; its cost to the nation is more than 100 Billion dollars each year

• Diabetes is growing; two years ago there were 16 million with diabetes. Now there are 18.2 million (13 million diagnosed; 5.2 undiagnosed). Compare to HIV/AIDS. Generous CDC estimates put the number with HIV/AIDS at 1 million.

• Diabetes treatment:
  1. In order to survive, people with type 1 diabetes must have insulin delivered by a pump or injections.
  2. Many people with type 2 diabetes can control their blood glucose by following a careful diet and exercise program, losing excess weight, and taking oral medication.
  3. Many people with diabetes also need to take medications to control their cholesterol and blood pressure.
  4. Among adults with diagnosed diabetes, about 12% take both insulin and oral medications, 19% take insulin only, 53% take oral medications only, and 15% do not take either insulin or oral meds.

• Hispanics are almost twice as likely to have diabetes as non-Hispanics and nearly 25% of all Hispanics, age 45-74, have it.

• African-Americans are almost twice as likely to have diabetes as the general population and 11.4 percent over 20 years of age have it

• Diabetes and Research Funding: Diabetes is the 5th largest killer of Americans (AIDS = 17th), yet the NIH is spending only $56 on each diabetic in research in 2006 compared to $3,054 on each AIDS patient.
  
  Diabetes and all other diseases except HIV/AIDS would receive larger research allocations under the FAIR Foundation's policies.

Statistics from the American Diabetes Association. Alpha-1 Antitrypsin link is to the National Organization for Rare Diseases (NORD).

You have helped us grow rapidly, but we need more members to change Congress and the NIH. Please encourage new membership by posting this in chat rooms, Blogs, internet support groups, and by forwarding it to your associates, friends and relatives with your recommendation that they join free HERE. With strength in numbers, we WILL achieve fair and equitable NIH distributions for diabetes as well as ALL other diseases. 

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