Aids

            
             AIDS is the worst disease epidemic to ever spread throughout the world since the Black Death took the lives of more than one third of the European population back in the Middle Ages. AIDS, which is an acronym for Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome, is a disease cause by the HIV virus. The disease kills white blood cells which are the main component of our immune system that helps to fend off dangerous diseases and other viruses. It gradually breaks down the immune system and the infected party will usually die from a simple infection that the immune system would have normally fought off. The United States government as well as its' people need to take steps concerning the AIDS epidemic. Those steps should be funding to try to find a vaccine, the promotion of abstinence and safe sex in schools, and having needle exchange programs throughout America.
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             Along with spending money on finding cures and treatments of AIDS, we have to concentrate on finding a vaccine for the disease as well. About $25 million is spent annually on research for a vaccine by the United States. About $2 billion is spent annually on research for a cure and for a treatment. These amounts are totally unproportioned to what it should be. Of the world's diseased population, AIDS infects about 90% of them. But only 10% of what is spent on disease research is for finding a vaccine for AIDS. A vaccine is needed before cures and treatments so it can stop it from being spread. Once we stop it from being spread we can worry about the infected population. It does not make sense any other way. A vaccine needs to come first. In 1980, the German scientist Emil von Behring successfully immunized animals from tetanus and diphtheria, two serious and potentially deadly illnesses that were common infections, and still are to a certain extent even today. Instead of vaccinating the animals with weakened copies of the bacteria responsible for the diseases, he made use of the fresh discovery that the diseases cause sickness by secreting toxins into the bloodstream (Travis).