Should Government Spend More Money on AIDS/HIV Research Than Other Diseases that Claim More Lives?

Should Government Spend More Money on AIDS/HIV Research Than Other Diseases that Claim More Lives?
Although heart disease is the number one leading cause of death in the United States, killing 948,088 people a year, one would think that it would receive majority governmental funding for disease related research, but it doesn’t. The number two leading cause of death in the United States is cancer, killing 529,904 people a year and neither does it receive majority of governmental funding. AIDS ranks 17th among killer diseases, yet it receives far more research dollars than any other disease. It receives $1.8 billion a year in funding, a third of all federal research dollars. As of 1998, AIDS received a total of $2,400 per patient while heart disease received only $108 per patient (Gene 17). Diabetes, which kills more people annually than AIDS and breast cancer combined, received $28 per patient (Gene 17). So why should AIDS research receive more federal dollars than the sixteen other ...