It is believed by many that the idea to research and tread diseases does not seem to be as practical and sensible as investing in measures to prevent them. Curing illness is said to be too expensive compared to prevention. In my opinion, I agree that prophylactic actions are more effective and less costly than treatment strategies.
To prove the effectiveness of preventing diseases as opposed to curing them, I want to give an example. According to scientists, the flu epidemic in the world will never be as severe as it was before the invention of vaccinations. There is a decreasing amount of infected people each year. Therefore we can notice a pattern that immunity to disease reduces the death rate from an illness and re-infection. Something that was killing millions of people in the past now is a seasonal disease that we can cure in almost all cases and this is happening due to vaccinations.
Besides, If people do not do any prophylactic measures they must pay for their carelessness. There are a lot of side effects of drugs that we use to cure diseases. As a consequence, they cause more damage to our health that we have to cure in the future. Not to mention the fact that viruses evolve all the time so it is much harder to create remedies, as the result they cost extremely expensive. As for other diseases, they have many forms and types too, so you will never know the price of your treatment.
In conclusion, I would like to say that even though researching and treating diseases is very important, I believe in the crucial effectiveness and benefit of preventative measures.