Posted by Sandy Donchess on October 29, 1998 at 00:01:21:
In Reply to: Re: news posted by Steve on October 28, 1998 at 21:50:51:
I read the article and got the impression that education and behavior modification are definitely the goals. Drug use and prostitution are now the major vectors for AIDS, and too many folks still don't know that. I don't have a problem with money being spent to educate people in this way; their choices can result in AIDS. With us, specifically folks with Type 1 diabetes, choice had nothing at all to do with it (even if you TRY, you can't make yourself have Type 1). I see the issues as being very different.
With the "bonus" money that NIAID and NIDDK will get, I would very much like to see much more spent on a concerted effort to determine the prospects of islet cell encapsulation. It seems to me that this avenue has been "pooh-pooh'd" for far too long. Encapsulation research is not afforded the dignity of being considered an elegant solution, but (as I've said before) ugly and functional is fine with me. We need to find out if encapsulation will work, and we need to do that now, in a goal-oriented, focused way. Some of the doctors/beaurocrats/researchers I've contacted believe in encapsulation; others don't. As long as the question remains, it needs to be answered.