"AIDS and Ostriches: Business is Not Facing Up to the Scourge"

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1989. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

"AIDS and Ostriches: Business is Not Facing Up to the Scourge"

Barron's (12/18/89) Vol. 69, No. 51, P. 16
Feldschuh, Joseph

Abstract: The AIDS epidemic is a brewing financial disaster far bigger than Hurricane Hugo or the San Francisco earthquake, writes Joseph Feldschuh, president of Daxor Corp. and a practicing cardiologist, medical researcher and teacher. However, says Feldschuh, instead of developing a national business strategy, companies seem interested only in what drugs to market and which new tests to add. Business, he writes, may yet pay dearly for its parochial attitude. Part of the problem, according to Feldschuh, is that people separate HIV infection and later-stage AIDS instead of seeing it as, in the words of researcher Paul Volberding, "one disease process" with early, middle, and late stages. If one assumes 1.5 million Americans carry HIV and will become ill, with treatment costs of $15,000 a year, the average bill for AIDS will be $22.5 billion a year. Lost worker production time could add another $22.5 billion. It is time, writes Feldschuh, for both government and society to fight the spread of AIDS more aggressively.

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