Talk about a bad hit, HIV and Malaria turn out to be a deadly combination for regions in Africa. According to research done in Africa, the two diseases actually feed on eachother. If you happen to be sick with Malaria, the fever in your body makes your HIV count 10 times higher, making your chances of infecting someone else significanly more likely. If you happen to have HIV, your more likely to get infected with Malaria.
I can not imagine anything worse than being sick with HIV and Malaria. If one doesn't kill you, the other one likely will. What really bothers me though, is that the western world has ways to make both of these illnesses livable. Neither one of these are the death sentence they used to be...at least not for us rich people.
Bono (you know that really famous lead singer of U2, who insists on being known by only one name? like cher or shakira, except neither one of them openly acknowlege the plight of the poor...but this side note is becoming too much) Anyway, Bono mentioned a while back that we had the ablitiy to cure AIDS. I don't know about a cure, but i'm more than a little suprised that all those big pharmaceutical companies (you know the ones making millions, billions, katrilians. mostly from celebrity using their anesthetic during thier nose/ breast/chin implant surgeries) aren't doing more. Their profits are soring (not quite as much as oil companies but still soring) and as far as i can tell, they are putting their money into making TV comercials where pretty girls frolick on the beach with their partners while the voice narrator discusses genital herbies. Wouldn't it make more sense to work on an actual CURE for these diseases? or maybe send some of the treatments (along with people to distribute it)...
but thats just a thought...
2 comments:
let me be the balancing voice of the capitalist friend.
drug companies do have HUGE incentive to develop an AIDS cure. they would make even more "katrillions" with a miracle drug like that. i honestly doubt they're holding back on such a potentionally profitable enterprise.
might sound horrible to you, but if we don't allow drug companies to make a lot of money, they won't develop drugs. the R&D process is expensive and takes a long time and it's only fair that they get a good return on their investment. do YOU work for free? where do we get this idea that big businesses grow money trees?
who should pay to distribute a cure once it's found? governments, agencies like the red cross, and if they 're smart and want a positive image associated with their brands - the drug companies would chip in too. it's all about incentive.
(clearly i need to get my own blog :)
Wow! what would i do without my capatialist friend:)
they might make a lot of money initially on a cure, but once something is cured, they no long have a business. Why have income come in only once, when you can keep people alive and keep the income coming for a lot longer?
while i do conceed that you probably are right about big business needing to make money to make more drugs, i do wonder what sort of a world we would live in if they let the profit margin slide a bit....
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