Asia+M’s+2015+OpEd+Article



Today, according to the U.S. Statistics, 1 in 7 people are currently living with HIV. Out of the 78 million infected in the world, 1.2 million of those 78 million are currently living in the USA. Enough people for researchers to develop and test for a cure or vaccination. Another known virus in the USA/World is Hepatitis. Hepatitis is a medical condition where there is inflammation in the liver and is characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissue. Some of the symptoms are: jaundice, loss of appetite, enlarged spleen and lymph nodes, and can lead to severe scarring and acute liver failure. There are five classifications of Hepatitis, A, B, C, D, and E. The main two are B, and C because Hepatitis A and E are not chronic and can not become a chronic disease or have long-term liver damage. Further more, Hepatitis D is only found in patients who are already infected with Hepatitis B.

Every commercial on TV is about Hepatitis C, and a cure is within reach. That is fantastic, but only 130-150 million people in the world has chronic Hepatitis C infection and only 350,000-500,000 will develop liver cirrhosis/liver cancer. Yes, those numbers are fairly high, but Hepatitis B has two billion people worldwide (1 of 3 people) and one million people die from it per year. Why are we not investing time and money into Hepatitis B? This is more people than HIV and Hepatitis C combined. Those millions of people all have families who worry about them. Not knowing if the Hepatitis B will develop into cirrhosis/ liver cancer or acute liver failure. A little time bomb ticking inside them.

There are dozens of disease that are ignored because not enough people are infected with it in order for our government to spend money on research. Ever heard of Dercum's disease, Devic's Disease or Kurz Disease? Having one of those diseases is an almost guaranteed death sentence because there is almost no research towards a cure. On a scale of the amount of money vs. human life, money outweighs the human life. How sad is that? People aren't going to start donating to unknown diseases. Some could argue the ASL challenge could happen again. Unfortunately, it was an once in a lifetime movement/challenge.

With all of that said, it would be in better context if Hepatitis B was swept under the rug along with all the other rare diseases. However, that's not the case. One out of three people are living with Hepatitis B. This should be enough of a reason to start research for a cure or to enhance pre-existing research. To save/give those infected a fighting chance to live and reduce the fear of the families. Yes, it has a vaccination but that doesn't help the two billion already infected. Hepatitis needs to be researched, it needs a cure.

Support the the cause. Support the research for this large scale disease that claims/ruins so many lives.