Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1989. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - Thursday, July 15, 1989
And if current trends continue, such spending on AIDS will surpass that of all other diseases for the first time next year, researchers said.
They said they believe their work is the first to total up the entire federal commitment to stopping the acquired immune deficiency syndrome epidemic.
"We were surprised to learn the extent to which so many different individuals and agencies were involved in AIDS efforts," said Dr. William Winkenwerder. The analysis shows that AIDS spending -- more than $2 billion this year -- makes up nearly 10 percent of the total budget of the U.S. Public Health Service, which oversees government medical research, and by 1992, will account for nearly 13 percent.
Spending on AIDS research, education and prevention is comparable to other diseases that "will continue to have a far greater effect on U.S. mortality," the report concludes.
The analysis was directed by Winkenwerder, former AIDS coordinator of the Health Care Financing Administration and now with the Southeast Permanente Medical Group in Atlanta. It was published in today's New England Journal of Medicine.
The report said that from 1982, when the epidemic began, to the end of this year, the federal government will have spent $5.5 billion on illness caused by HIV, the AIDS virus.
In 1989, federal AIDS spending will total $2.2 billion, or about 1 percent of all federal health expenditures. Of this, about $1.3 billion will be spent for research and prevention. The disease will kill 35,000 people.
By comparison, the government will spend $1.5 billion on research and prevention of cancer, which will kill 500,000 people this year, and $1 billion for heart disease, which will kill 777,000 Americans.
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