Posted on 04/15/2009 1:34:06 PM PDT by Stoat
London is in the grip of a startling rise in diseases associated with Victorian times, figures disclose today.
Rare infectious illnesses including typhoid, whooping cough and scarlet fever have soared by 166 per cent in the past two years.
Infection rates in the capital are markedly higher than the national averages, warned Justine Greening, the shadow minister for London who assembled the figures.
They include a staggering 214 per cent increase in cases of mumps - up from 125 in 2007 to 393 last year. The disease is easily prevented with vaccine. The rise could be a result of parents shunning the MMR jab after now debunked claims in 2001 that it might be linked to autism. Mumps in adults can lead to hearing loss and damage the nervous system.
Whooping cough cases quadrupled in the five years to 2007, from 63 to 252. The disease is highly contagious, with infections often lasting months. Symptoms include choking spells and vomiting and can cause death, especially in young infants.
Cases of scarlet fever, which causes high fevers, rashes, and even severe damage to internal organs, are up 153 per cent since 2005, with 501 infected in London last year.
Typhoid, associated with poor sanitation and hygiene, has risen steadily since 2004, from 45 to 127 cases per year.
The Conservatives claimed the Government was partly to blame for failing to invest enough in public health and to appoint school nurses.
Ms Greening, the Putney MP, said: "The rise of these highly-infectious and potentially fatal diseases in our city is truly alarming.
"The Government must do more to ensure the public health of Londoners."
Fags. They made the gov institute HIPPA, so they can be sick little ass pirates and spread disease privately.
Did it turn you japanese?
Do you really think so?
I remember Doc S. talking about TB and other stuff.
Scary.
It’s probably not helped by the fact that their National Health Service is increasingly staffed by third-world Muslims and doctors, many of whom refuse to wash their hands properly or wear proper uniforms because it’s not halal. Not to mention the doctors who blow up bars and airports in their spare time.
” The rise could be a result of parents shunning the MMR jab after now debunked claims in 2001 that it might be linked to autism.”
A vise-like grip on the obvious.
Obviously, you are a numbers person.
Hey, this is your big day, isn't it?
Vaccination rates are definitely part of the equation, and I have no doubt that some parents are still avoiding them because of the reasons you cite as well as a now-debunked scare as suggested in the article, but I don't think that it's entirely inappropriate to consider the possibility that some if not a substantial number of third-world immigrants do not get vaccinated because of basic ignorance to the benefits of vaccinations, a religious or cultural impasse or a general fear and distrust of Western medicine, which brings us back to immigration. If you bring in enough third-worlders, you're going to get a certain percentage that are ignorant, fearful or both.
Totally socialized medicine, an absolutely insane immigration policy, a public purse that hemorrhages money to people who won’t work because they don’t want to, limited numbers of health care professionals who are willing to put up with the PC crapola that comes with being a government flunky...
And I am supposed to be surprise that these “rare” diseases are making a comeback?
I’m retired!
Immigration is definitely an issue as well. One element in immigrant populations is a large number of unvaccinated adults, which produces a greater susceptible group for any infection and vectors of transmission which aren’t found in a group where adults don’t contract the disease.
Mumps, typhoid, whooping cough and scarlet fever are all diseases that are brought in by third world immigrants and nurtured by idiots who won’t get vaccinations because “vacinnations will give you autism, etc.”
This is what happens with socialists in charge.
Only a foreshadowing. The labor pains are getting closer and stronger.
It could be people who think vaccinations are hurting their children. The jury is still sorta out on that, but it is a growing trend in this country as well.
Agreed. This issue illustrates one of the primary reasons why I consider news from the UK to be absolutely essential for us proud Yanks to read and to try to stay abreast of, in addition to what's going on over on this side of the Pond. Unfortunately for our British Friends, the cancer of Socialism has metastasized far more broadly and deeply in the UK but for us here in the USA this represents an opportunity to see what our own future might be like if we fail to hold Socialism in check, and beat it back whenever possible. We are given a window of sorts into a possible future, and we close the curtains at our own peril.
This point is covered in the article - the Andrew Wakefield-inspired MMR/autism scare, which is still having repercussions.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.