Are HIV/AIDS Deaths Headed to Zero? Clearly the answer is "yes." We give great credit to the HIV/AIDS researchers for developing such excellent drugs and to the affected communities for their laudable prevention and harm reduction efforts. Here are just a few examples of their success: California? As of 12/31/05 the number of "newly infected" HIV/AIDS patients who died in California is 144 which represents a stunning 98.5 percent decrease from the high in 1992. "Newly infected" patients used to die quickly, but now that the excellent drugs have converted HIV/AIDS into a chronic illness as opposed to an acute illness, these patients are living much healthier lives. The decrease in deaths of all HIV/AIDS patients in California is also very impressive: 88.5 percent. Connecticut? 2004 HIV/AIDS deaths of 17 represents a 98 percent decrease from its high in 1995, the last year before the introduction of the new HIV/AIDS drugs. Illinois? 100 HIV/AIDS deaths in 2004 represents a 93 percent decrease from its high in 1995. New York State? From a high of 8,302 deaths to 1,901 in 2003--a 77 percent decrease and in Rhode Island, an 84 percent decrease. The Mortality Statistics Branch of the National Center for Health Statistics, a Division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has just released it death statistics for HIV/AIDS in 2003. The death certificates from all fifty States total 13,658 HIV/AIDS deaths versus the 18,017 estimated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although US states' HIV/AIDS deaths have been falling rapidly, the CDC has kept its estimate from 17,000 to 18,000 for four years. In light of the success throughout America in fighting HIV/AIDS and budgetary restrictions experienced by the President and Congress that have ceased increases in disease research funding, is it still appropriate for HIV/AIDS to still receive ten percent of the entire federal research budget? We think not and express that sentiment in our next few stories below.

"Bush Budget Would Cut Popular Health Programs"

This telling article today by Ceci Connolly of the Post tells of many cuts, including funding for Alzheimer's disease educational programs and an elimination of the entire budget for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center. At the same time, HIV/AIDS research funding is being cut only -0.5 percent or $15.172 million out of a 2.93 billion total. The Kaiser Foundation reports that the Bush proposal increases funding for global HIV/AIDS, and in addition, HUD announced a $300 million increase in funding from the 2007 budget to help HIV/AIDS patients with housing here in the USA. Read the story by Connolly and learn of the valuable FAIR member in Washington, DC, who keeps us abreast of these issues here.

FAIR's Board of Directors Communicates with Senate Subcommittee overseeing research funding

In our President and Board of Directors' letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Labor, HHS and Education, they point out the success of the HIV/AIDS community, including HIV/AIDS deaths falling to 48 in the Chairman's State of Pennsylvania. We respectfully request a revaluation of HIV/AIDS present funding levels with consideration of a portion of that funding now being allocated to other illnesses. Click on the Senate logo to read the letter.

FAIR's Request to House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee to Give Oral Testimony

Our President, Dr. Darling, has written to The Honorable Ralph Regula, Chairman, House of Representatives Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education Committee on Appropriations with a formal request to give oral testimony to his members regarding the need for fairer and more equitable disease research funding. Click on the House of Representatives logo.

FAIR's Follow-up to House and Senate
Appropriation Committees' Legislative Health Aides

In June and October, Dr. Darling gave over sixty-five FAIR presentations to Legislative Health Assistants in the House and Senate, including to most of those representing the Appropriations Subcommittees' members. In follow-up emails, Dr. Darling brings more awareness to the Health Assistants of the great success of the HIV/AIDS researchers and calls for new funding policies in Congress and the NIH. Click here to read a sample of his emails to the Congresspersons' Legislative Health Assistants.

Overestimation of HIV/AIDS in China Disclosed

In a country of 1.3 billion people, there are 650,000 people, or .05 percent, estimated as having HIV/AIDS, which is 23 percent lower than the previous estimate. Why the overestimation? Insufficient accuracy. How does the media report it versus how FAIR would have headlined the article. Full Story here.

Chicago HIV/AIDS Activists Successful in Silencing FAIR

FAIR was invited to and presented at the Georgia Doty Health Education Fund's (GDHEF) "Hepatitis and HIV Health Disparities Conference" in Chicago recently. Subsequent to that presentation, the GDHEF Founder, Don Doty, asked Dr. Darling to write an article for their Newsletter and Dr. Darling's article called for Congress and the NIH to reverse their disproportionate funding policies with a corresponding increase in funding for liver disease research, including that for hepatitis B and C (read it here). Doty distributed the Newsletter to many and an anonymous HIV/AIDS activist objected in an email entitled "A concern about Richard Darling's advocacy." After Dr. Darling responded to clarify the misconceptions leveled at FAIR, Doty said he would support FAIR and include the article. Doty has since reversed his decision by stating in an email that he will send two versions of their Winter Newsletter, one to the HIV/AIDS community without Dr. Darling's article and another to everyone else with Dr. Darling's article. The version without our article has been distributed to the HIV industry, many members of the public and is posted on the Doty website. The version with our article has yet to be redistributed. You may read the full thread of emails between Dr. Darling, Doty and the AIDS activist here. Videos of unsuccessful attempts by HIV/AIDS activists to silence Dr. Darling that are not related to the Doty newsletter may be viewed at video 1 and video 2.

Only $48 per Diabetic for Research
(vs. $3,084 per HIV/AIDS patient)

Diabetes now affects nearly 21 million Americans – or 7 percent of the U.S. population - and it kills more citizens than AIDS and breast cancer combined, yet only $48 is spent on each diabetic in research versus $3,084 per HIV/AIDS patient. Is that fair? Click here.

The HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials Parade Continues

In May there were 1,742 HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials, in August, 1,865, in October 2,233, in December 2,293, now 2,365. Find out how many for your disease by clicking here. For example, there are a total of 225 trials for Alzheimer's Disease, 227 for Parkinson's disease and 240 for COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) as of 2/11/06.

Are Many Children Dying of HIV/AIDS?

It is not uncommon to hear arguments that more HIV/AIDS funding is necessary because many children are dying from that illness. Indeed, Donald Trump's "The Apprentice" and CBS's "Survivor" TV shows give millions of dollars in auction proceeds to pediatric AIDS organizations. Sandra Burchett, M.D., M.Sc., an infectious disease specialist at Children's Hospital in Boston and an associate in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School states, "Children who are diagnosed with HIV infection early and receive treatment for HIV can live not just better, but truly healthy, normal lives." The facts from the CDC: estimated number of USA AIDS cases in children under the age of 13 is fifty-nine and the number of deaths is twenty-nine. NIH funding for pediatric HIV/AIDS is greater than the funding for any of the other 6,000 orphan (rare) illnesses, by hundreds of millions of dollars. Our past communications to Trump and Survivor's Exec. Producer suggesting it is now time to consider sharing their auction proceeds with organizations researching other pediatric illnesses have fallen on deaf ears.

"Religious Groups get Chunk of AIDS Money"

President Bush's $15 billion effort to fight AIDS has handed out nearly one-quarter of its grants to religious groups, and officials are aggressively pursuing new church partners that often emphasize disease prevention through abstinence and fidelity over condom use. Full story from the AP here.

FAIR Members' Soapbox Alerts continue; this month they address sufferers from prostate and Alzheimer's disease as well as diabetics. Click the Soapbox logo to send an alert to President Bush, VP Cheney, your Senators and/or your Representatives today!

FAIR's Amber Alerts

Although not a governmental research issue, The FAIR Foundation is pleased to join the national campaign to save the lives of abducted children by alerting the public when a child is kidnapped. Click here to read the Amber Alert message that runs on our website.

Focus Disease of the Month:  Peripheral Neuropathy (PN)

• Peripheral Neuropathy results from damage to the peripheral nerves. It can cause weakness, pain, loss of coordination, and sensory loss in the arms and legs. The disorder varies in severity, but in some cases it can be debilitating, or even crippling or fatal. However, if diagnosed early, it can often be controlled.

• Known causes of PN include: diabetes, autoimmunity disease, genetic defects, cancer, kidney disease, nutritional imbalance, toxins, including alcohol, nerve compression and infections such as hepatitis C, Lyme and Leprosy. It is frequently seen that patients with end-stage liver failure in need of transplant have PN and it is also an occurrence occasionally seen after transplant with the cause being unknown.

• PN Symptoms: The symptoms are usually sensory (affecting sensation) or/and motor (affecting motion). Most types of PN affect both, but some affect only one. Manifestations can appear as weakness in the arms and legs, numbness, tingling and pain also known as paresthesias, including numbness, tingling, pins and needles, prickling, burning, cold, pinching, sharp, deep stabs, electric shocks, or buzzing. In addition, unsteadiness and a lack of coordination when walking due to uncertainty about the placement of feet; the odd feeling of wearing stockings or gloves or slippers when, in fact, hands and feet are completely bare.

• Profiling a PN Hero: Emily Oleksiuk-Statistics show that only .007363 percent of all Americans can complete the Triathlon.   Emily Oleksiuk is among them.  Even more remarkable, on November 5, 2005, she finished the grueling Ironman Florida Triathlon just two years after being diagnosed with Parsonage-Turner syndrome, a rare type of neuropathy that causes crippling muscular pain. Read the uplifting story of Emily by clicking on her picture provided by The Neuropathy Association.

• PN is common: Neuropathy is common. It is estimated that 10-20 million Americans suffer from this illness. It can occur at any age, but is more common among older adults. A l999 survey found that 8-9 percent of Medicare recipients have neuropathy as their primary or secondary diagnosis.  

• Need a support group or a neurologist: Both are available with a click from The Neuropathy Association. Simply click here to learn of the groups that are available and here to find a physician in your State.

• PN Treatment: Drugs such as gabapentin (Neurontin), carbamazepine (Tegretol) and phenytoin (Dilantin) were originally developed to treat seizure disorders (epilepsy); however, physicians often prescribe them for some of the symptoms of PN. Pain reliever medication is utilized as well as proper control of blood sugar levels in diabetics, eliminating the intake of toxic substances (alcohol) and supplementing with vitamins when a vitamin deficiency is present. If PN is caused by an autoimmune disorder, immunosuppressant medications will be given to control the immune response. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation is also used at some clinics, e.g. The Mayo Clinic. 

• PN and Research Funding? In its list of diseases and their research funding, the NIH is spending $55 million dollars on all neuropathy disorders. Assuming 15 million sufferers, that is $3.66 allocated per patient with neuropathy compared to $3,084 per HIV/AIDS patient. For related disorders (multiple sclerosis and epilepsy), the NIH expenditure per patient ratio is 200 times greater than it is for neuropathy. PN and all other diseases except HIV/AIDS would receive larger research allocations under the FAIR Foundation's policies.

Facts and statistics from The Neuropathy Association and The Mayo Clinic.

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 PN as well as ALL other diseases. 

The FAIR Foundation, 78629 Bougainvillea Drive, Palm Desert, CA 92211   E-mail: fair@dc.rr.com

FAIR Mission Statement: The FAIR Foundation is dedicated to fair and equitable distribution of research funds by the government for all diseases, including the 16 that kill a million more Americans than AIDS. A disease’s mortality rate shall be given emphasis in determining allocations and other secondary factors shall be utilized to insure diseases that cause great suffering but have low mortality rates will also receive significantly increased funding.