Earlier quoted context omitted.
> TB is also shockingly infectious let's keep HN as a place where people usually do at least a cursory research before they state things with such confidence... or inject a few words of doubt to signal that you haven't done the homework. if you feel the urge to fight this: i lived with someone infected with TB. e.g. measles is shockingly infectious. TB is not.
Depends heavily on whether we're measuring in practical terms, or in "no medical intervention" terms. If we're measuring in a vacuum without medicine, then absolutely, the measles is dramatically more infectious. If we're measuring in the real world where medicine exists, the measles has a safe, cheap and effective vaccine. New case rates dropped 76% between 2000 and 2018 due to extensive vaccination campaigns, and n…
re eradicating measles: the terrain is much more complicated than presented. first, because the vaccine fades away, and without measles spreading in the young population, adults don't get natural reminders, and eventually there can be a big wave without poking everyone. and the disease is much more dangerous for adults. and all this unnecessary trouble for a disease that is not really dangerous when left alone and the population is not malnutrished.
and there's that cancer thing with measles, just to shed some light on the complexity:
MEASLES: Albonico et al found that adults are significantly protected against non-breast cancers — genital, prostate, gastrointestinal, skin, lung, ear-nose-throat, and others — if they contracted measles (odds ratio, OR = 0.45), rubella (OR = 0.38) or chickenpox (OR = 0.62) earlier in life. [Med Hypotheses 1998; 51(4): 315-20]. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/9824838/
MEASLES: Montella et al found that contracting measles in childhood reduces the risk of developing lymphatic cancer in adulthood [Leuk Res 2006; 30(8): 917-22]. http://www.lrjournal.com/.../S0145-2126(05)00466-2/abstract
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/16406019/
MEASLES: Alexander et al found that infection with measles during childhood is significantly protective — it cuts the risk in half — against developing Hodgkin’s disease (OR = 0.53) [Br J Cancer 2000; 82(5): 1117-21].
http://www.nature.com/bjc/journal/v82/n5/full/6691049a.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/10737396/
Measles to the Rescue: A Review of Oncolytic Measles Virus. MV Clinical trials are producing encouraging preliminary results in ovarian cancer, myeloma and cutaneous non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and the outcome of currently open trials in glioblastoma multiforme, mesothelioma and squamous cell carcinoma are eagerly anticipated. Aref S, et al. Viruses. 2016.