Primary immune deficiency is sort of like cancer. It’s the immune system that allows the uncontrolled, abnormal growth of cells.To prevent cancer you need a good immune system, no doubt about it. Cancer as a immune deficiency sounds coherent.
I ran this experiment today,
I did a Google search for “cancer” and I got 306,000,000 results.
Then I ran a Google search for “primary immune deficiency” and I got 1,830,000 results.
That’s a difference of 304,170,000 results… And “primary immune deficiency” is three words.
How many people have cancer? 1,372,910 new cases in 2005 according to the ACS (PDF format).
Thats 222 internet web pages per cancer patient.
How many people have primary immune deficiency? 50 thousand diagnosed according to the IDF (PDF Format).
Thats 36.6 internet web pages per PI patient.
Some researchers say that one out of every one thousand people has some type of primary immune deficiency. The US population is 295,734,134 according to the CIA. That’s 295,734 cases of PI. That would make 6.18 internet web pages per PI patient.
There are lots of celebrities that promote cancer awarenes. Lance Armstrong for example.. I don’t know of any celebrity that promotes awareness for primary immune deficiency.
So why is there more buzz about cancer?
The Google experiment is a simple one but it helps me explain that I find more support and resources for cancer than for primary immune deficiency.