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Florida's TB epidemic is bad news for all


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How bad is it when 99 people in the US – most of them homeless, drug addicts or mentally ill – get tuberculosis? It doesn't sound like much. But it rings alarm bells here at Threatwatch.

An investigative journalist in Palm Beach, Florida, has reported that in April in Jacksonville, Florida, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigated what it called the biggest outbreak of TB in the US since the early 1990s. Yet even as the CDC was writing its report, Florida's legislature voted to slash jobs and funding in public health, and to close its only TB hospital. It shut on 2 July.

The subsequent ruckus has focused on an alleged cover-up of the outbreak. The more important message, though, is how easily TB can get out of control even in the richest country, and how, unless we are very careful, economic recession could make that much worse.

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I noticed how careful they are not to mention illegal immigrants that haven't been immunized. Florida has a huge problem with illegal immigrants.

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I noticed how careful they are not to mention illegal immigrants that haven't been immunized. Florida has a huge problem with illegal immigrants.

There is no immunization for TB

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There is no immunization for TB

Especially not against the drug resistant strains.

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Especially not against the drug resistant strains.

Yes! There actually is a vaccine. I had never heard of it. It is not widely used in the US and does not guarantee immunity. It is more often given in countries where TB is common.

http://www.cdc.gov/t...nes/default.htm

@Michelle, apologies.

Edited by QuiteContrary
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Yes! There actually is a vaccine. I had never heard of it. It is not widely used in the US and does not guarantee immunity. It is more often given in countries where TB is common.

http://www.cdc.gov/t...nes/default.htm

Where the cure is mostly more harmful than the ailment, quote cdc besides not always working:

The BCG vaccine should be considered only for very select persons who meet specific criteria and in consultation with a TB expert

There were attempts since 1919 to develop a usable vaccine, the problem is that the vaccine itself can cause TBC as it is a less virulent strain of the bovine form that is used as immunization. If you get it your chances are about as high to get TBC as if you just try general hygiene. That is why I say there is no immunization.

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Questionmark why do you/they say that about the BCG, just curious?

I've had the BCG vaccine but so did most of my peers, it is a standard vaccine given to all high school aged children in the UK to protect against TB. It's a mega sore vaccine and leaves a horrible huge scar :( There is a skin test that is done first to see if you need it, most people do lol.

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Where the cure is mostly more harmful than the ailment, quote cdc besides not always working:

The BCG vaccine should be considered only for very select persons who meet specific criteria and in consultation with a TB expert

There were attempts since 1919 to develop a usable vaccine, the problem is that the vaccine itself can cause TBC as it is a less virulent strain of the bovine form that is used as immunization. If you get it your chances are about as high to get TBC as if you just try general hygiene. That is why I say there is no immunization.

Yes, I see what you mean, I was clarifying my reply to Michelle. I decided to check on my (no vaccine) reply and found to my complete surprise there was a vaccine of sorts. I tried to multiquote you and Michelle and I still don't know how.

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Questionmark why do you/they say that about the BCG, just curious?

I've had the BCG vaccine but so did most of my peers, it is a standard vaccine given to all high school aged children in the UK to protect against TB. It's a mega sore vaccine and leaves a horrible huge scar :( There is a skin test that is done first to see if you need it, most people do lol.

I am no expert, so I suggest you check with them. And the vaccine with the bad scar is against smallpox. Not against TB.

Edited by questionmark
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I was also vaccinated in high school as a child in the UK for TB,and the scar is actually worse than my small pox jab.

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I am no expert, so I suggest you check with them. And the vaccine with the bad scar is against smallpox. Not against TB.

No the BCG is the one that left a horrible scar, unless they put the small pox vaccine in with it. But one vaccine being the BCG is the one that leaves a scar on everyones arm in whichever way they do it over here.

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/BCG/Pages/Introduction.aspx

I see now why they do this test first for 16 /17 year olds. Some people have had it when they are a baby / young child but not everyone does. So if you missed having it then, you get it as a teenager.

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I was also vaccinated in high school as a child in the UK for TB,and the scar is actually worse than my small pox jab.

Yeah it looks like a huge ugly chicken pox scar doesn't it. And kids being kids were brutal to one another with it. At least in my school there was a epidemic of having to protect your arm from others thinking it was funny to launch a punch on your BCG wound/scar. I saw one persons pop once and well...you can imagine.

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I noticed how careful they are not to mention illegal immigrants that haven't been immunized. Florida has a huge problem with illegal immigrants.

Be careful about blaming a single group of people for all our woes, it never turns out well. The US does not routinely vaccinate for TB. We have found that testing for exposure is just as effective. A lot of European countries do vaccinate for TB, but their endemic rates were always higher.

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I am no expert, so I suggest you check with them. And the vaccine with the bad scar is against smallpox. Not against TB.

They both leave a scar because they have to cause an infection to be effective. The infection is in the skin instead of the lungs and is a weakened or, in the case of smallpox, a closely enough related virus that does not cause widespread disease.

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Questionmark why do you/they say that about the BCG, just curious?

I've had the BCG vaccine but so did most of my peers, it is a standard vaccine given to all high school aged children in the UK to protect against TB. It's a mega sore vaccine and leaves a horrible huge scar :( There is a skin test that is done first to see if you need it, most people do lol.

ahh the memories!

i learnt not to annoy the nurse doing the skin test, what a learning curve that was, whooosh

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I am no expert, so I suggest you check with them. And the vaccine with the bad scar is against smallpox. Not against TB.

Never heard of smallpox vaccine, wasnt it wiped out cause of cowpox?

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Never heard of smallpox vaccine, wasnt it wiped out cause of cowpox?

I was born in 1965,back then in the UK smallpox vaccine was standard .Yes Smallpox is eradicated but they still have samples locked away in labs..

Edited by shaddow134
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I was born in 1965,back then in the UK smallpox vaccine was standard .Yes Smallpox is eradicated but they still have samples locked away in labs..

I dont doubt they still have samples in labs, but im from a different era.

when it came to my lot getting shot up, we didnt have smallpox,

which would suck if a lab smaple escaped into a duct... LOL

Thanks for the reply.

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So in a mobile society, where austerity measures that limit health departments have been instituted by reactionary conservative governments, people get TB and are unaware, move throughout the country and spread disease. Apocalypse now?

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So in a mobile society, where austerity measures that limit health departments have been instituted by reactionary conservative governments, people get TB and are unaware, move throughout the country and spread disease. Apocalypse now?

Depends. If these people also cannot afford a doctor or cannot afford the complete dose of medicines most probably yes. They will create a new strain of drug resistant TB. Now those who are capable of taking their medicine and pay for it will probably be cured (unless their strain is already resistant).

But even in the most virulent times there were hardly more than 30 suffering from TB for every 10,000 inhabitants of which 20 died from TB (the other ten other causes) At worst, if all TB gets resistant and given that people live nearer to each other those figures can double. Tuberculosis is a nasty but certainly not a doomsday disease.

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TB is no joke. I remember when I was still working for a hospital at an outlying clinic.. Every year we went through health days. You got your TB test and if you cleared, you got your flu shot. I don't know what happened if you didn't clear your TB, never happened at the clinic I was working at. During those two weeks was the yearly round of defibrillator certification, pathogen training, including where the negative pressure room was and how to use it. The place I worked at was serious about TB. But then, they were pretty serious about a lot of other stuff too, and it was a hospital after all :)

So, given all of that, I am a bit of a worrywort about TB. If it's standard and caught early, steady treatment can do wonders. But if it's left untreated, is not steadily treated, or if it's a more resistant strain, that can be kind of scary.

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This is a joke. When i was a paramedic,and we worked the SROs in upper Manhattan,literally,every person in the place,had TB.

Multiply that by all the SROs.

NYC has thousands and I mean thousands of active TB patients .99 .

The upper west side alone,has thousands,as does queens .

I would put the oxygen mask on them to protect me.

I had to get tested for TB every six months,because I had no less than 2 patients with TB,coughing all over me,on a daily basis.

That's hype to get people hysterical and go out and get vaccinated.

LOL

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