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COPD is a growing medical and ultimately social problem in the United States. Some estimates place the number of those suffering with this disease as high as 30 million Americans. It is surprising that so little has been accomplished in the way of new treatments, public awareness, or political action to focus attention on this major public health problem. We believe that COPD sufferers and their families control many of the factors that could change this situation. Progress in research is directly dependent on the amount of research money spent on a given disease. The amount of research is directly proportional to the amount of money the government and private citizens put towards the research. Unfortunately, very little money is currently being spent to cure COPD. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds most biomedical research in this country. Only 1% of the NIH budget can be identified for COPD research, despite the fact that 15 – 30 million Americans have the disease. By contrast, approximately 10% of the NIH budget funds research on AIDS, but. less than 1 million Americans have AIDS. This shows the extent of underfunding for COPD research. What has made the difference? The answer is “political and social activism.” Government and private funding agencies respond to the public, but in this case, the public has been silent. COPD patients and their families and friends do not actively demonstrate to increase funding to cure the disease. Almost no private money is raised for research into new treatments or cures for this disease, and no organization lobbies Congress to force more NIH funding for COPD research. In the past, one could argue that this was because there were so many more promising approaches to cures for other diseases, and the outlook for progress in COPD was grim. That has all changed now, and there is no excuse from a scientific standpoint for there not being a big push for a cure not to be undertaken NOW! But without political and grass- roots action on the part of patients, their families and their friends, the amount of funding available for COPD research will remain inadequate. To break this cycle, we must speak out on the subject of working for a cure for COPD. The HIV community did exactly that in the early 80s. They were rebuffed repeatedly, but they kept at it and within a few years, the federal government and private sources of funding responded. Funding is needed for research to find a cure and improve treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an umbrella term used to describe the obstruction of air sacs within the lungs that is associated mainly with emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Over 117,000 Americans died of COPD in 2000, making it the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. It has been estimated that 10.5 million Americans aged 25 years and older have physician-diagnosed COPD. However, an additional 14 million Americans have evidence of impaired lung function, indicating that COPD is underdiagnosed. COPD costs the U.S. economy an estimated $18 billion a year in direct medical costs. Contact your State's Members of Congress today to urge them to consider funding for COPD research. If you don't know how to contact your Senators and Representatives, you can find their phone, fax, Washington DC and email addresses at the following website: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ Below is a sample letter: Sincerely, [your name] |
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