Federal Funding Priorities

I am joining the fight against this heinous disease much later than I should have and I am embarrassed for my hesitation. However I fully intend to be a fighter against epilepsy and relentless in that fight. I have a 28 year old daughter suffering the ravages of epilepsy. She needed one more semester to complete her BS degree; however like some many college students with epilepsy her med’s were so detrimental to her short-term memory she was unable to attained the needed grade point for earning her degree. This Fall semester was the third time she has tried to complete her final semester. I am angry. My hope is that all of you will to have the understanding AND the courage needed to address the questions and the goals I plan to present. My first question is why is Federal government’s research funding (NIH, NSF, etc.) allocated in such a disproportional manner in regards to the number of individuals afflicted with a given disease? Yes, I am referring to the amount of Federal funding going to AIDS research as compared to epilepsy, cancers, diabetes, arthritis, or Alzheimer’s. On a per-person basis, the funding for AIDS is staggeringly high compared to any of the afore mentioned diseases. And no, I will not accept anyone’s charges of homophobia; this has to do with what is equitable and just. To counter anyone’s political correctness why don’t we use some simple facts and reason. We know the causal agent for AIDS, we know how it is contracted/transmitted, and we already know how to prevent it. Can any one of those attributes be assigned to epilepsy, cancers, diabetes, arthritis, or Alzheimer’s? No they cannot. Then why the lopsided degree of funding for AIDS? What makes this even more frustrating to me (a scientist) is that for epilepsy the majority of the efforts seem to be directed at managing the symptoms and not finding cures. When was the last time you contacted your representatives in the U.S. Congress about their efforts against epilepsy? Or have you ever done so and if not – why not? Here’s the link for doing so: http://www.contactingthecongress.org/ I think it is pass time that we upped the fight.