A case of tuberculosis that may have exposed others to the infectious bacterial disease was reported at the San Diego Continuing Education’s Mid-City campus, the county Health and Human Services Agency announced Monday.
So far this year, 98 tuberculosis cases have been reported in San Diego County. There were 258 cases reported locally last year and 234 cases in 2015.
I have always thought TB was probably spreading through oral sexual activity as much as respiration. If so, it was a powerful K-selective force before antibiotics, and it may be coming back:
Decades of progress in combating tuberculosis are in danger of being derailed by the rising tide of drug-resistant TB strains, experts have warned.
Across the world, resistant TB is on the march. Roughly one in five global cases of the disease is now resistant to at least one major anti-TB drug, a new study points out.
In 2015 there were an estimated 480,000 cases of multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB, said researchers. About half of these were reported in India – where TB was present on an “epic scale” – China and Russia.
However, migration and travel was sewing the seeds of resistant TB in almost every part of the world.
An estimated 5% of all TB cases were classified as MDR, meaning the bacteria cannot be treated with two essential first-line drugs, or even more dangerous XDR (extensively drug-resistant)…
Also known as consumption, or “white plague”, the infection has ravaged human communities around the world for thousands of years.
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, TB raged through Europe killing millions. In England and Wales alone, four million people died from tuberculosis between 1851 and 1910, and many of the victims were in their 20s or younger.
And in some states, over one third of refugees test positive for TB:
Data from the Vermont Department of Health show that more than one-third of refugees resettled in Vermont test positive for tuberculosis.
Since 2013, about 900 refugees admitted to the Green Mountain State have been tested for tuberculosis, a potentially fatal infectious disease affecting the lungs. Of that number, 318 refugees, or 35.4 percent, tested positive.
Watchdog.org obtained the health data on Wednesday following reporting by Stateline that the disease may be making a comeback in the United States.
A good pandemic could take out the rabbits, leave the K-strategists, and do it all with a minimum of misery for our side. I have always thought the Renaissance after the Black Plague must have been an amazingly magical time. To have come from the Dark Ages into that, would have been stunning.
We may see that again.
Spread r/K Theory, because a pandemic can be sterilizing of the disease
[…] Another TB Scare In San Francisco […]
The Russian’s used to vaccinate against this. I wonder if we can get some vaccine. Although the behaviors that allow for TB to spread can’t exactly be vaccinated against.
About 80% of people in Africa and Asia have been exposed to TB (which means they are carrying latent TB bacteria in their lungs). If they become sick, which can happen under stress, then they can easily spread this to you. This is why I consider anyone who hires a foreigner r-selected, and anyone who wants to travel to diverse place r-selected. The only thing going for humanity right now is that most TB bacteria have not yet adapted antibiotic resistance, but that is rapidly changing. Science can’t really beat this so don’t get mad when you get sick, because you were warned.
The vaccine is only affective against a few strains of TB and if you get the vaccine the standard TB tests will show up positive so you would need a chest x ray to be cleared.
Right now many gays just use TRUVADA PReP instead of condoms even though it only works against non drug resistant HIV (brought to the US by refusegees this year) , is hard on liver/kidneys, and costs (often the taxpayers) $1,500+ per month per person.
The 80s are coming back
Hey Anonymous, I must tell you in history not every mass pandemic (or civil war) end in Liberty or a new Renaissance.
I know it is easy to look at Europe after the Black Plague (or even America after the war of independence) and to think that is our future. If you look at say the mass pandemic that happen in the Byzantium Empire (one of the worst in history 541–542), China (1641–1644), the Plague in Athens (430 BC) or the spanish flu (1918), for the average population the civilizations turn to the opposite of freedom and the leaders crack down on the current civil liberties and rise taxes. What follow was higher food prices, lower birth rates, often Democide. In some cases such as the Byzantium or American Indians Civilizations it is followed by a slow death of the empire to a be eventual by take over by outsiders.
All I am saying is that If the current West gets a new Black plague it might not lead to a new Renaissance but it could follow the Byzantium model which led to them losing their empire to the Arabian Muslims (7th century) and years of high taxes and lower birth rates led them to getting the final nail in the coffin by the Turks. Same thing with Civil War can led to a French or American civil war style instead of the war of Independence.
Interesting. Could be, if the Muslims bring a disease they have immunity to and we do not. Then again, if something hits which we have better resistance to due to prior exposure…
Good points though.