Posted on 01/24/2007 8:06:50 PM PST by FairOpinion
People infected with a deadly, virtually untreatable new form of tuberculosis should be isolated and confined -- against their will, if necessary -- to prevent a "potentially explosive international health crisis," according to a group of Canadian and African scientists.
These harsh measures are justified given the "extreme risk" posed by an ongoing outbreak of extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) in South Africa, they argue in today's edition of the medical journal Public Library of Science Medicine.
"We're not saying put people in leper colonies," Ross Upshur, director of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics and co-author of the paper, said in an interview. "But if voluntary measures fail, we need systems in place to contain the spread."
Dr. Upshur said the call for draconian restrictions on the movements of people infected with XDR-TB is not made lightly -- it reflects the severity of the outbreak.
(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...
The New Mexico health department will soon be bankrupt if they have many more patients with XTB at $250,000 per.
Hundreds of Lubbock Residents Possibly Exposed to Tuberculosis
TB Sanitariums were also used for isolating TB cases for a lot of years. There were no cures prior to antibiotics except to remove an infected lung lobe.
It looks like we're in danger of entering another era where the word "Tuberculosis" will again connote "The White Plague".
It's not just NM. These people are spread out throughout the entire country. The scary part is that school kids have been getting exposed to TB, and many other diseases. It's TOTAL insanity on the part of our corrupt politicians. We can't let them get away with amnesty!
"TB is on the rise in the U.S. also."
No it's not. We're at the lowest rates we've ever had since 1953, when the US first started keeping these stats. The rate at which we're declining is slowing, however.
"The fact that anyone is even willing to talk out loud of quarantine is a scary red flag indicating just how bad this is. Quarantine is an extremely un PC subject."
XDR-TB is scary, and it's been confirmed in 27 countries so far, including the US. Since 1993 we've had 64 cases. 21 completed treatment, 20 died, and the remaining 23....who knows.
However, every state already has laws on the books to allow for the involuntary detainment of infectious TB patients who refuse to adhere (or who otherwise can't voluntarily adhere, as in the case of mental illness) to treatment. These are used even in garden variety TB that's sensitive to all first-line TB drugs. These laws are used as a last resort, but they are used.
The take-home message of XDR-TB is that TB drug resistance is entirely man-made (it doesn't occur in nature) and is the direct result of not providing adequate basic TB control. (On a side note, the World Bank has identified TB control as one of the world's most cost-effective health interventions, and they're going to release a report in the coming months showing the economic benefit of TB control.) Drug-resistant TB is not only more lethal, it's exponentially more costly to treat. It's also related to the fact that no new first-line TB drugs have come on the market in 40 years. The standard treatment regimen is 6-8 months long, using 4 drugs for a time and then 2 drugs for a time. The patient tends to feel better after just a couple weeks of treatment (and is also no longer infectious after that period), so without proper case management a patient isn't always likely to religiously take their drugs. Hence the rise of drug resistance.
"1/3 of Global Population Infected With TB"
This is true, and few people know it. It's important to draw a distinction here, however. This doesn't mean that 1/3 of the population is sick with TB disease, which is infectious and can be passed to others. What it means is that 1/3 of the world's population is infected with the TB bacillus, which doesn't involve symptoms and can't be passed to others. Roughly 10% of these will develop active disease at some point in their lives, at which point they can then pass the germ to others, each of whom on average would have a 10% lifetime chance of developing TB disease, and so on.
The depletion of the immune system that follows HIV infection, however, increases the chances of developing TB disease to 10% EACH YEAR after TB infection. This is why Africa and Southeast Asia (areas hit hardest by HIV) have seen skyrocketing rates of TB since the 1980s. The two diseases work in tandem--like gasoline and a match.
So how do the uber-germies get out if the patient in fact is no longer infectious...?
"The people of US is the most exposed to the TB due to the followings :
1.There is no anti TB vaccination program."
The reason we don't have a TB vaccination program is because an effective vaccine doesn't exist. BCG, the vaccine for TB, protects to some extent against certain severe types of TB in infants and young children (e.g., TB meningitis) ages 0-5, but it doesn't protect against TB in adults and adolescents. It's only useful for preventing child sickness and death in areas where TB is highly prevalent and the risk of infection is high (and even then it's efficacy is debated).
Since our rates of TB infection are so low relatively, it doesn't make sense to have a vaccination program.
Old news. Here in good ol' Minnesota, we have bed bugs from the Somalians and TB from the Hmong. Whoopee!
Your post caused me to look up Chagas. One of many diseases the illegals are bringing.
How do people get Chagas disease?
People can become infected in various ways. In Chagas-endemic areas, the main way is through vector-borne transmission. The insect vectors are called triatomine bugs. These blood-sucking bugs get infected by biting an infected animal or person. Once infected, the bugs pass T. cruzi parasites in their feces. The bugs are found in houses made from materials such as mud, adobe, straw, and palm thatch. During the day, the bugs hide in crevices in the walls and roofs. During the night, when the inhabitants are sleeping, the bugs emerge. Because they tend to feed on people’s faces, triatomine bugs are also known as “kissing bugs.” After they bite and ingest blood, they defecate on the person. The person can become infected if T. cruzi parasites in the bug feces enter the body through mucous membranes or breaks in the skin. The unsuspecting, sleeping person may accidentally scratch or rub the feces into the bite wound, eyes, or mouth.
People also can become infected through:
consumption of uncooked food contaminated with feces from infected bugs;
congenital transmission (from a pregnant woman to her baby);
blood transfusion;
organ transplantation; and
accidental laboratory exposure.
----snip----
http://www.cdc.gov/NCIDOD/DPD/PARASITES/chagasdisease/factsht_chagas_disease.htm
That's the thing...after a few weeks of adhering to treatment, the germs no longer come out. TB germs are spread when someone with TB disease coughs, laughs, sings (there's a least one study describing the spread of TB in a church choir in NJ). Enough force has to be used to actually aerosolize the germs into the air--talking isn't enough to do it. So after a few weeks taking treatment, cough typically subsides and the patient no longer spreads the germs.
A nursing home I worked in for a while during the mid 1980's was an old TB hospital used by the state that was converted to a nursing home later. The top floor ward still had active TB patients there. Once you get TB you have to be monitored the rest of your life. Inactive TB can become active at any time. The older strain isn't as easy to catch as you would think with some basic precautions though. Not knowing someone has it is the danger.
The new strain though sounds like real bad news. Some of it comes from improper treatment where patients had it and only took about half the MEDS etc till they felt better and the bug grew immune to the treatment in some cases.
Unfortunately it takes a while to develope symptoms. There are probably one hell of a lot of people that the illegals have infected and will be getting the symptoms within a couple of years.
"Unfortunately it takes a while to develope symptoms."
This is true. Unlike, say, SARS, TB can take years to activate after you've been infected. Only about 10% of people who are infected with TB actually develop the disease. Roughly 90% of those infected never display symptoms and can't pass it on to other people.
"There are probably one hell of a lot of people that the illegals have infected and will be getting the symptoms within a couple of years."
Last time I looked, CDC was estimating between 10 and 15 million people in the US were infected with TB (to be clear: this is "latent TB infection" (LTBI) and not disease. But 10-15 million people with LTBI represent roughly 1 to 1.5 million cases of TB disease at some point down the road if they're not treated for LTBI).
Regarding how many are infected by illegals, it's hard to say, but most of those infected with the TB germ likely weren't infected by illegals. If you look at the data for US cases of TB disease (remember: you can only be infected with the TB germ by someone with actual TB disease), it was only about 5 years ago that the majority of TB cases were in people who were "foreign born," which includes both legal and illegal immigrants. "Foreign born" cases now equal a little more than half of all TB cases in the US. I don't know how these break down between legals and illegals, but the vast majority of them would have to be illegal in order for your statement to hold true.
One might argue that the vast majority of foreign born TB cases ARE illegal, because we screen legal immigrants for TB disease before allowing entry. This is true, but we screen only for TB disease and not TB infection, so nothing is to stop someone from immigrating legally with TB infection then developing TB disease at some point down the road.
This isn't to make light of the situation with illegals bringing it in, but considering that a third of the world's population has LTBI (representing roughly 200 million future cases of TB disease), 9 million people annually develop TB disease, it's airborne, and you can get virtually anywhere on the planet in a day or two, it's a far larger problem than as it relates to immigration. A wall may stop the flood of illegals, but it's not going to do much to stop TB.
Your points are well taken. We've had so much immigration that the disease is coming from everywhere. The problem with illegals, is that they aren't screened. Also, tourists could bring it.
Found this interesting article about illegals and disease:
Illegal Immigrants Are Spreading Dangerous Diseases Across This Nation
By Dave Gibson (05/12/05)
It is often said that the flood of illegal immigrants into this country is reaching 'epidemic proportions.' While that statement is true--it is just as true that the illegal immigrants pouring over the U.S.-Mexican border are endangering this country with actual epidemics. Tuberculosis, hepatitis, dengue fever, chagas, and even leprosy are being imported into the U.S. inside the bodies of illegal aliens...And you thought they only carried heroin-filled baloons inside their bodies!
A 'hot-zone' of disease can be found in this nations border states. Illegal immigrants are setting up so-called "colonias" just inside the states of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. The shanty towns are comprised mostly of cardboard shacks and huts made with cast-off building materials. They have no sanitation, and are surrounded by mounds of garbage. The estimated 185,000 illegals share their makeshift towns with armies of rats. Of course, diseases only common to Central and South America run rampant in these places.
One of the imports to this country is chagas disease. It is caused by a parasite known as trypanosome. It is a blood-borne disease and is spread by triatomine insects. The parasite burrows into human tissue (usually in the face), where it then begins to multiply. In addition to being spread by insects, it can also be contracted through blood transfusions.
After cases of chagas were reportedly discovered to have been spread by transfusions in Canada, that nation began testing all blood donations for the disease.
For 40 years, the number of recorded cases of leprosy within the United States totaled 900. Today, we know of more than 7,000 current cases of leprosy in the U.S.
Dr. John Levis of New York's Bellevue Hospital's Hansen Disease Clinic said of America's documented cases of leprosy: 'There are probably many, many more and they are spreading."
Most of those in the U.S. who are suffering from leprosy are from Mexico, India, Brazil, and the Caribbean. However, there are a few documented cases in which the person became infected with leprosy inside the U.S. The majority of the cases have been discovered in this nation's northeastern region.
Once thought to be nearly eradicated in this country, TB is now making a strong comeback. In a recent interview with Mother Jones Magazine, Dr. Reichman of The New Jersey TB Clinic recently said: In the 1990's, cases among foreign born Americans rose from 29 percent to 41.6 percent. Antibiotic resistant strains from Mexico have migrated to Texas. Since three years ago, 16,000 new cases of TB were discovered in the United States. Half were foreign born. Strains of TB once only found in Mexico have migrated to the border states of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. It will move north as illegal aliens work in restaurants as cooks, dishwashers, and food handlers. We sit on the edge of a potential catastrophe."
In 2001, New York's Tuberculosis Control Program discovered that 81 percent of that city's new cases of TB were attributed to immigrants
Cases of TB are now being found in many areas of the country, where there are high concentrations of illegal immigrants. In March of 2002, The Washington Post reported that Virginia's Prince William County experienced a 188 percent increase of TB infections over the previous year. Yes, the streets of Prince William County are over-run with illegal aliens seeking day-laborer jobs.
Last year, the rate of TB in the northern part of Virginia rose 17 percent. The Va. Department of Health blamed the rise on that region's recent flood of illegal immigrants. Many strains of TB are being found in certain neighborhoods, which are dominated by illegal Latin American immigrants.
The threats posed to our country by illegal immigration are many. However, our political leaders will undoubtedly continue to ignore them. Our own president is willing to place all Americans at risk, in exchange for securing the Latino vote for the Republican Party.
If left unchecked, illegal immigration will destroy this nation one way or another.
http://www.americandaily.com/article/7751
Yes, it is. Esp in the American Southwest. It is being brought here as well as chagas, and other diseases we wiped out decades ago. TB is also mutated into a stronger virus that is not treatable with current antibiotics.
Another reason to build the fence along Mexico (illegal immigrants are bringing up several such diseases) and to get the bums off the streets (they are a haven of diseases that had been previously eradicated, or nearly eradicated).
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