With the world in uproar over H1N1, people have a tendency to miss the big picture. Despite the uproar over H1N1, the biggest medical issue affecting the world is still HIV and cancer.
A few years ago, Asia was hit by SARS. A friend and I were talking about it and he said that SARS was even more dangerous than HIV. I replied that he was being nonsensical. With SARS, you have less than 10% chance of dying, with HIV it’s a 100% death sentence.
I admit I could have handled that better.
The incident came to my mind when I read that there were 218 people in Singapore who were diagnosed with HIV in the first six months of this year. Despite H1N1, HIV and cancer are still bigger problems for Singapore and the world. I had lost a relative to cancer and an aunt of mine is currently battling cancer as well.
The world is rushing for a cure or vaccine for H1N1, maybe after the H1N1 scare is over the world can then concentrate on HIV and cancer again. Because in the long-term, HIV and cancer are still more dangerous than H1N1.
2 comments:
HIV is a death sentence like high blood pressure or diabetes or being born is a death sentence.
In developed countries, nowadays (and some developing countries with good health systems), HIV is now considered a chronic treatable disease and few people actually die from HIV/AIDS. They do have to take medication long term just like people with Diabetes or high blood pressure.
You hit on something I don't quite understand Paul. It's truth that with the right medicine, they can prevent HIV from being turned into AIDS, but that's not a cure. It does seems to me that people in the medical profession seems to have given up on finding a cure for HIV and cancer, and seems to think medication/chemo that slow them is the way to go. To me, it seems that a cure for HIV & cancer are being treated like the holy grail that will never be found
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