November 27, 2017

WalletHub Releases Stats on High Costs of HIV/AIDS

READ TIME: 2 MIN.

With World AIDS Day coming up on Friday, December 1, the personal-finance website WalletHub released its 2017 HIV/AIDS Facts report to help build awareness about this disease, which costs us thousands of lives and millions of dollars per year as researchers employ many innovative solutions to cure HIV/AIDS.

"The pace of research over the last several decades in the area of HIV/AIDS, and consequently in areas relevant to HIV/AIDS, such as immunology, biomarkers, epigenetics, etc. has been truly astounding and augers well for ultimately finding a cure within the next decade or two," said Dr. Roger Detels, MD, Director of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study & Dean Emeritus, UCLA School of Public Health.

The report includes an engaging infographic as well as a Q&A with a panel of leading healthcare experts. Here are some examples of what you'll find:

  • $380,000 - Lifetime treatment cost for an HIV infection

  • $788 Mil. - 2017 federal funding for domestic HIV/AIDS research and prevention

  • $0.71 per $100 - In charitable donations made by U.S. foundations and corporations goes to HIV/AIDS causes

  • 1.2 Mil. - Americans are living with HIV (13% don't know), and 50,000 people are infected each year

  • 675K - People in the U.S. have died of AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic

    "Laws on many state books that continue to criminalize HIV transmission do not protect the public and maintain stigma and discrimination," said Dr. Chris Beyrer, MD, Desmond M. Tutu Professor of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. "The expansion of the ACA and the protections for people with pre-existing conditions were powerful HIV/AIDS improvements. The worsening HIV epidemics in the southern states that refused the Medicaid expansion under ACA are evidence of how misguided these policies have been."

    For the complete report, visit
    http://wallethub.com/blog/aids-hiv-statistics/41922/

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