Doctors in Botswana, already battling one of the highest levels of HIV per capita in the world, are being overwhelmed by a dramatic rise in cancer cases as a result of the epidemic….
The cost of treating Kaposi’s Sarcoma was an additional burden on the public service health budget.
“The cost per patient is 350 pula (58 US dollars) per course which is repeated four to six times. There is also the cost of radiotherapy which is between 5,000 and 7,000 pula. With other types of cancer, these amounts increase to 2,000 pula per course,” he said….”
Meanwhile at the Tenth International Obesity Conference experts noted that” the cost of treating health problems related to being overweight was immeasurable on a global scale, but was estimated at billions of dollars a year in countries such as Australia, Britain and the United States.
“We are not dealing with a scientific or medical problem, we’re dealing with an enormous economic problem that, it is already accepted, is going to overwhelm every medical system in the world,” said Prof. Philip James, the chairman of a global task force set up by medical organizations that deal with weight-related problems.
He said governments had been forced to confront rising obesity rates because of the expense of treating related health issues.”
Health care costs are rising, exploding like ballon…speading like a cancer…
The reason is not drug costs or greedy drug companies or useless medical technology.
The reason is disease. Disease — or our inability to prevent it or stop it early — is expensive. Things that killed us quickly and sooner have been replaced with illnesses that use a combination of genes and environment to trigger chronic and long term patterns of illness that cripple and kill. And there are some who believe that those who make profit out of finding ways to pre-empt these pathways are bigger evils than the diseases they fight.
So who is the bigger enemy of the human race?
