CDC Director- Ebola poses a threat equivalent to AIDS

[Geaux4it]

Every day Washington seems to open the Ebola lid a little at a time. Seems the CDC director thinks the severity of Ebola is only to matched by AIDS.

-Geaux

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Here's CDC Director Thomas Frieden... (via The Hill)

Ebola poses a threat equivalent to AIDS and will become just as deadly without further action, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Tom Frieden said Thursday.

The remark is part of a marked increase in the intensity of warnings about Ebola from Frieden, the Obama administration's point man in communicating to the public about the virus.

"I've been working in public health for 30 years," Frieden told a World Bank and International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington.

"The only thing like this has been AIDS. And we have to work now so that this is not the world's next AIDS," Frieden said.

The Nightmare Scenario Is Around The Corner... Ebola Is The World s Next AIDS Zero Hedge

 

[waltky]

Ebola diverting funds from Aids fight...

Ebola Distracts Funders from AIDS Fight, Advocate Says
November 26, 2014 — As the deadly Ebola virus ravages West Africa and dominates headlines, Sibongile Tshabalala believes the Treatment Action Campaign is running out of steam at the worst possible time.

The South African AIDS advocacy group faces imminent shutdown over a budget shortfall of 10 million rand, about $900,000. It’s among the organizations striving to combat the global AIDS epidemic – and struggling even more as attention and funding have been diverted to Ebola, advocates such as Tshabalala say. Tshabalala is the Treatment Action Campaign’s chairwoman for Gauteng province, whose capital is in Johannesburg. She agreed Ebola is “a crisis that everyone must deal with.” But, she said, so is AIDS.

Global epidemic

Since emerging in 1981, the scourge has infected around 78 million people worldwide and killed at least 35 million by leaving them vulnerable to related illnesses, according to UNAIDS. The United Nations program estimates 35 million people worldwide today are living with HIV infection – at least 6 million in South Africa alone. But, Tshabalala said, "Funders feel that HIV is no longer a sexy disease that they can fund. However, we still have a lot of people who are dying because of AIDS-related diseases." Last year in South Africa, roughly 200,000 people died of AIDS-related illness, UNAIDS estimated. That’s an average of 548 deaths a day. 'That tells us that we haven’t won the fight against HIV yet," Tshabalala said.

Treatment Action Campaign supporters chant and dance during a demonstration in Cape Town, South Africa.

World AIDS Day approaches

The Treatment Action Campaign has until December 1 – World AIDS Day – to raise more money. Despite some generous pledges, it’s still far from its goal. Its financial crash was caused by the pullout of major foreign government sponsors who now deem South Africa to be a middle-income nation and therefore no longer in need. South Africa also has the world’s largest AIDS medication program. Ebola is a swift killer: Many patients die in days or weeks, in horrible pain, and there is no cure.

AIDS can now be a lifelong condition instead of a death sentence, thanks to medical advances. But that doesn’t make AIDS any less dangerous. The current Ebola outbreak had taken at least 5,459 lives as of November 18, averaging almost almost 17 a day, based on data provided by the World Health Organization. In contrast, AIDS worldwide averaged 3,835 deaths a day last year, according to UNAIDS data.

Inadequate health system

See also:

The End of AIDS Could be Within Reach
November 26, 2014: WASHINGTON — This year's World AIDS Day focuses on how to achieve an AIDS-free generation. The United Nations predicts that if prevention and treatment services are scaled up, the epidemic will no longer be a global threat in 15 years. But if goals are not met, the pandemic could get worse.

For 30 years, Dr. Anthony Fauci has been the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In 1984, there were no drugs that targeted HIV/AIDS. There are now more than 30. Fauci describes the progress in controlling HIV/AIDS as “extraordinary.” "If you can put someone on anti-retrovirals relatively early in the course of their infection ... let us say they are a 25-year-old man or woman, you could look them in the eye as I do when I see them in my clinic three times a week, and tell them if they stay on their drug, you could project that they could live an additional 50, five-zero, years, which is one of the most extraordinary accomplishments in biomedical research in translation," said Fauci.

But the latest study shows only 30 percent of Americans with HIV are getting the right treatment for HIV. The number drops by half for those between the ages of 18 and 24. Some experts blame the human factor: some people are afraid to find out their test results, others are tired of taking pills, don't feel like using condoms, and worry about the stigma that comes from having HIV.

Howard University in Washington sponsors a yearly conference to examine the stigma associated with this disease. Rod McCoy, who is HIV-positive, works with an organization that provides HIV education and testing. "One of the things I am concerned about as a health educator is people staying on their meds, but also people who are not infected having the mentality of, 'Oh, people take medication, so if I get infected, I will be fine.' My concern is around the complacency around prevention because of the success of treatment,” said McCoy.

Dr. Fauci tells people at forums like those at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that complacency is why a vaccine against HIV is so needed. "When we start seeing that there is such a low level of infection and the numbers look good, that is when we are going to have a rebound. My conclusion, then, is that it really is essential to durably control and end the AIDS epidemic is to have a vaccine," he said. Even with extraordinary accomplishments in AIDS treatments that are driving down the numbers of people who get HIV, more than 35 million people around the world still have the virus, and the United Nations reports another 1.5 million people died from it in 2012, far too many lives to become complacent.

The End of AIDS Could be Within Reach

 

[Politico]

Just more proof Obama puts idiots in positions of authority.