Article

2011-09-14 Europe

WHO: Dangerous TB spreading at alarming rate in Europe

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Posted by g(r)omgoru 2011-09-14 02:49|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 This is pretty serious stuff. Even with traditional TB, the mortality rate is 7%. With the multidrug variety (MDR-TB) it is 50%, and the extremely drug resistant variety (XDR-TB) is pretty much "nice knowing you--everything you have touched will be incinerated, and your remains will be buried in quicklime."

The social impact of a TB epidemic is terrifying, because it may kill you quick, or screw up just about any organ in your body, or put you in a wheelchair, or it might make you hyper-creative or hyper-sexual, or you may become pale and gaunt and look like a concentration camp victim.

The emotional morbidity we think of as the "Gothic" look is based on TB. People obsessed with death and dying. Lots of suicide. Mourning black as decor. It psychologically messed up an entire generation.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-09-14 11:05|| 2011-09-14 11:05|| Front Page Top

#2 Bacterial, so don't touch your face and frequent hand washing. Active and latent. Latent you carry it but your not contagious. I didn't realize you can have it for two weeks then big trouble with active. Test early then test again later to make sure. Forget the "Gothic" look but some of the benefits look interesting. I can believe the "Lots of suicide" part. People don't want to suffer and don't want to be financial drain on the family.

Posted by Dale 2011-09-14 13:15|| 2011-09-14 13:15|| Front Page Top

#3 The TB culture was something else. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it killed close to a billion people. Yet it had been around as a disease since ancient Egypt and Greece.

Because it affected people differently, it was thought to be several conditions. Scrofula, glandular swellings in the neck, consumption (TB of the lungs), lupus vulgaris (TB of the skin), and Potts disease (TB of the bones).

The deaths of Mimi in Puccini's La Boheme and Satine in Moulin Rouge, as well as countless other characters found in novels, who would just vanish, the author assuming the readers would know they had died of TB.

With a mortality rate of around 80%, "heroic anything" was tried. In one instance it was found that intentionally collapsing a lung, and letting it remain collapsed for a period of time, the other lung doing the work. It was assumed that given a "rest" allowed the collapsed lung to heal. Weirdly enough, they were right.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-09-14 14:07|| 2011-09-14 14:07|| Front Page Top

#4 Anonymoose are are indeed a Medical Doctor or "Teacher of Medicine". In a select choice of words you have a masters touch.

Posted by Dale 2011-09-14 15:41|| 2011-09-14 15:41|| Front Page Top

#5 How much of this is coming from Third World immigrants? Just asking...

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2011-09-14 16:24|| 2011-09-14 16:24|| Front Page Top

#6 How much of this is coming from Third World immigrants?

Quite a bit, I suspect. Likely a large Eastern Europe, also.

But how can this be possible with all that super-fantastic, totally free socialized euro-medicine we keep hearing about?

Posted by SteveS 2011-09-14 17:52|| 2011-09-14 17:52|| Front Page Top

#7 Uncontrolled imigration contributed hugely to its' resurfacing in the UK, as well as political decisions, hell, we had an illegal with HIV, TB and probs MRSA as well, masks on, chlorine solutions all round.

Posted by Rhodesiafever 2011-09-14 19:23|| 2011-09-14 19:23|| Front Page Top

#8 Also helpful have been AIDS sufferers who did not properly complete their course of treatment, I have read.

Posted by trailing wife 2011-09-14 19:30|| 2011-09-14 19:30|| Front Page Top

#9 It's primarily a social problem (spreading in addict and homeless populations), made worse by the disincentives to drug companies to develop new antibiotics.

Another factor is how virulent the new strains are.

It used to be that the only way to get TB was by living with someone who had TB, but these new strains are spreading thru casual contact.

Posted by phil_b 2011-09-14 19:32|| 2011-09-14 19:32|| Front Page Top

#10 A year or so ago there were some really scary stories out of South Africa of hospital staff being infected and being dead within 2 weeks.

The lack of subsequent news does not inspire me with confidence they have it under control.

Posted by phil_b 2011-09-14 19:38|| 2011-09-14 19:38|| Front Page Top

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