By AFA Journal
July 13, 2004

(AgapePress) - A recent article in the Washington Times noted that the amount of money Congress spends on medical research through both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may be allocated on the basis of politics, rather than science or public need.

In terms of numbers of people in the U.S. who die due to various diseases, figures from 2001 show heart disease (700,142), cancer (553,768), and stroke (163,538) topping the list. HIV/AIDS, which is ranked 22nd on the list of causes of death, killed 14,175 people in 2001.

However, when CDC funding in 2001 is examined, HIV/AIDS tops the list by far with $854.06 million. Funding for diseases like heart disease, cancer and stroke lag far behind.

NIH spending also seems out of whack. Based on 2003 budget figures, that agency allocated roughly $194,000 per death caused by HIV/AIDS. For heart disease research, the NIH spent approximately $2,871 per death.

"NIH has to go back to the drawing board and reevaluate its methods for distribution and stop the favoritism toward AIDS," said Richard Darling, whose nonprofit group, Fair Allocations In Research, keeps an eye on NIH funding patterns.

Why such disparity? Dr. Stuart Seides, associate director of cardiology at the Washington Hospital Center, a private teaching hospital in the nation's capital, said diseases such as HIV/AIDS or breast cancer have "a strong political constituency," whereas heart disease does not.

"There's a mismatch between the funding for research and the incidence and importance of cardiovascular disease, both locally and nationally," he told the Times.

This article appeared in the July 2004 issue of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association.

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