Have Germs, Will Travel

NY Times ^ | June 2, 2007 | L. MASAE KAWAMURA

[neverdem]

IF it turns out that none of his fellow passengers were actually infected with the dangerous form of tuberculosis he carries, then Andrew Speaker, the young honeymooner who recently eluded government efforts to keep him off commercial flights, may actually have done a favor to public health. His case has brought to light the neglected but growing problem of super drug-resistant tuberculosis, and the ease with which this deadly airborne disease can travel around the world.

Federal health officials have recently warned state and city TB treatment programs to expect budget cuts of as much as 25 percent over the next five years. But Mr. Speaker is not the first world traveler to carry the most drug-resistant TB, and he will surely not be the last. Instead of cutting back on TB research and treatment, we should be intensifying our efforts to fight the disease.

We urgently need tests capable of diagnosing drug resistance overnight, so that we can know which patients present the most danger to the public. We need new drugs to outwit the disease. And we need to support a worldwide effort to prevent TB bacteria from developing further drug-resistance.

Tuberculosis is an illness that was once thought to be under control. A century ago, it was responsible for one in five deaths in the United States. But then antibiotics came along, and a national effort to develop new drugs and diagnostic tools and to institute TB-control public health programs drove down the rates of tuberculosis in the United States to the point where people assumed it was eradicated.

Twenty years ago, complacency about TB control combined with the H.I.V. epidemic and a growing immigrant population to bring about a resurgence. As a result, in the early 1990s, TB programs in the United States were rebuilt to...

[elkfersupper]

Back in the day (not that long ago) when one could smoke on airplanes, there was enough air going through the cabin to zip away smoke, bodily emissions, bacteria and viruses.

Glad we don't have to worry about that anymore.

[GBA]

*Yawn*...so, when is the next season of American Idol supposed to start?

[Diogenesis]

The perps laugh at their "Infectious Hepatitis, Incurable Tuberculosis
and Morgellons disease, Typhoid, Cholera, Plague, Measles, Mumps, Leprosy,
Dengue fever, and Polio Importation Act of 2007".

* T.B. was virtually absent in Virginia until in 2002.

* Washington, D.C., T.B. had a meteoric rise of 188 percent ... traced to illegal aliens from Mexico.

* The Queens, New York, Health Department attributed 81 percent
of new T.B. cases in 2001 to immigrants, with 42 percent of all new T.B. cases ascribed to the foreign born.

* T.B. outbreaks afflicted schoolteachers and children in Michigan and adults and kids in Texas.
The teachers and kids caught it at school from the coughing children of illegal aliens.

* In Minnesota, the police suddenly came down with M.D.R.-T.B.
The cops caught it in their patrol cars when they arrested illegal aliens
who coughed in their faces.

* T.B. erupted in Portland, Maine, and DelRay Beach, Florida, directly traced to illegals.

Dr. Madeline Cosman disease/immigration studies

[Nathan Zachary]

What’s to stop a Jihadist on a suicide mission from infecting himself with a deadly and highly contagious virus and going on a multi- destination vacation?

Either air travel is going to become very restricted, or we just have to resign ourselves to the fact that human survival will come down to the survival of the fittest.

[goodnesswins]

HOW did the guy GET this resistant form of TB....that’s what I have not heard/read yet....

[Diogenesis]

TICKET AGENT:
Woooo-eeee. San Francisco, New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Kinshasa, Karachi, Bangkok, Peking!
That's some trip you're taking, sir, All in one week!

MR. PONYTAIL (o.s.) Business.

TICKET AGENT: (handing over the tickets) Have a good one, sir.

[elkfersupper]

What’s to stop a Jihadist on a suicide mission from infecting himself with a deadly and highly contagious virus and going on a multi- destination vacation?

Light a cigar or cigarette on board.

They will run for their lives or bail out.

[sionnsar]

Back in the day (not that long ago) when one could smoke on airplanes, there was enough air going through the cabin to zip away smoke, bodily emissions, bacteria and viruses.
Glad we don't have to worry about that anymore.

You might want to look at ASHRAE Standard 161(P?), which I think has been published (it was contentious for years).

[blu]

You forgot Cuckamonga!

[elkfersupper]

You might want to look at ASHRAE Standard 161(P?), which I think has been published (it was contentious for years).

Just did that. You're right. Everybody but the terrorist will bail out or run for their lives.

Should make it easy to take him or her out.

[Nathan Zachary]

Who knows? I do know that it is epidemic in the Philippines, so Mexicans aren’t the only source of it getting into the country, although illegal Mexicans are not screened at all, where as Philipeno's and anyone traveling to and from there are supposed to be screened and vacinated.

Then there are all those "legal" immigrants from Africa and Islamic countries, who are supposed to be screened as well.

The truth of the matter however, we don't do a very good job of enforcing the rules very well.