Is The Vision A World Without ALS Or Simply 4.5% Of The World Without ALS?

Following is from a year-end email sent out yesterday from an ALS not-for-profit:

"Every 90 minutes someone is diagnosed with ALS and every 90 minutes another person loses their fight against ALS. Make the next 90 minutes count – Please donate today!?

The "90 minutes" concept is based on an assumed 5840 new ALS diagnoses (and funerals) in the United States annually.

The United States contains only 4.5% of the world's population.

Did people who read that email understand that every 90 minutes someone in the U.S. plus 22 other people are being slapped with a motor neuron disease diagnosis? Perhaps more accurate and compelling messages might be:

Every four minutes someone is diagnosed with ALS and every four minutes another person loses his or her fight against ALS. Make the next four minutes count. Please donate now before the next person hears the dreadful diagnosis!

or

In the time it took for you to read this email, someone heard a doctor say, "You have ALS."

or

Today 356 families will be burying loved ones who have died from ALS.

or

Happy New Year. In 2010, an estimated 130,000 people will learn that they have ALS.

ALS is a large global problem. Americans are not the only someones. Is our vision a world without ALS or just 4.5% of the world without ALS?

We're not doing ourselves any favors by underestimating and understating the problem.