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Kansas tuberculosis outbreak is America's largest recorded since the 1950s

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Re: Kansas tuberculosis outbreak is America's largest recorded since the 1950s

#181

This is the type of thing that'd normally show up on CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report which has been published weekly since 1960 (my understanding is this is without fail). But unfortunately the current administration has decided an ideological purification is more important than keeping the American public apprised of threats to their health. So it wasn't published last week, and probably won't be this we…

> This is the type of thing that'd normally show up on CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The resurgence of TB has been the big story in infectious diseases for a while now.

Globally:

> The World Health Organization (WHO) today published a new report on tuberculosis revealing that approximately 8.2 million people were newly diagnosed with TB in 2023 – the highest number recorded since WHO began global TB monitoring in 1995. This represents a notable increase from 7.5 million reported in 2022, placing TB again as the leading infectious disease killer in 2023, surpassing COVID-19.

https://www.who.int/news/item/29-10-2024-tuberculosis-resurg...

As well as in the US:

> After declining for three decades, tuberculosis (TB) rates in the U.S. have been increasing steadily since 2020, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s a disturbing trend given that 1.5 million die from TB every year, making it the world’s most infectious killer.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/us-tuberc...

Re: Kansas tuberculosis outbreak is America's largest recorded since the 1950s

#182
post #62
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is treatable with antibiotics. Treating it casually has led to widespread resistance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multidrug-resistant_tuberculos... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensively_drug-resistant_tub... > People with an active infection feel sick and can spread it to others, while people with a latent infection don't feel sick and can't spread it. https://www.who.int/teams/global-tuberculosis-programm…

>Treating it casually has led to widespread resistance. I have long suspected this as part of why the subject isn't much discussed, despite being more prevalent than most realize. The elephant here is (aside from latent infection) the atypically long duration of treatment, which can exceed 6 months and is harsh. Many, even otherwise responsible people, will founder before the proper end of treatment and this, I think…

> It's probably time we start looking a bit harder for "natural" or alternate treatments.

Is the idea that a different label would lead to higher compliance rates?

Re: Kansas tuberculosis outbreak is America's largest recorded since the 1950s

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Since 2024" means from the beginning of 2025, not "during 2024".

"There has been one so far in 2025."

Read the data. There are many more latent cases recorded, and current new cases are not all recorded as the tally lags people sick right now.

You keep quoting that part and ignoring the rest of the article and the live data sources linked to it. The text of the article likely wasn’t from yesterday, as the reporter likely went around a week or two, gathered quotes, interviews, then spent some time in editorial revisions.

Re: Kansas tuberculosis outbreak is America's largest recorded since the 1950s

#186
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cutting resources often is the root cause for an outbreak. - SARSv2 (aka Covid-19) happened after Trump disbanded the team that contained SARSv1. - During COVID, the west suspended polio vaccination programs in developing regions, so now polio outbreaks are a thing again. - Antivaxxers in NYC caused a massive measles outbreak a few years ago. Etc, etc.

Covid was spreading in many countries before the US. Off the top of my head I remember China, Korea, Italy and Spain. And no country of significant size avoided it, regardless of whether they were led by Trump or not.

The US pandemic response team that Trump fired included a significant presence working onsite in China

https://www.reuters.com/article/world/exclusive-us-slashed-c...

Re: Kansas tuberculosis outbreak is America's largest recorded since the 1950s

#187
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m an academic scientist part of a really large government funded research grant that employs hundreds of people. Last time, we had to fire half our staff immediately right up front because they said they were cutting our funding. They ended up not cutting our funding at all, but we had already fired everyone so it was lose lose- the Government spent the money but the research couldn’t be done. Just plain bad leader…

Where did the money go then?

We hired new people with less experience and restarted the projects, but in a lot of cases the projects were set back years with no reduction in the cost.

Re: Kansas tuberculosis outbreak is America's largest recorded since the 1950s

#189
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cutting resources often is the root cause for an outbreak. - SARSv2 (aka Covid-19) happened after Trump disbanded the team that contained SARSv1. - During COVID, the west suspended polio vaccination programs in developing regions, so now polio outbreaks are a thing again. - Antivaxxers in NYC caused a massive measles outbreak a few years ago. Etc, etc.

Covid was spreading in many countries before the US. Off the top of my head I remember China, Korea, Italy and Spain. And no country of significant size avoided it, regardless of whether they were led by Trump or not.

People strongly recommended closing the US borders in the early stages of the pandemic, but they were dismissed as racists.

Re: Kansas tuberculosis outbreak is America's largest recorded since the 1950s

#190

This is the type of thing that'd normally show up on CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report which has been published weekly since 1960 (my understanding is this is without fail). But unfortunately the current administration has decided an ideological purification is more important than keeping the American public apprised of threats to their health. So it wasn't published last week, and probably won't be this we…

I wonder if we’d do better in discourse to stop pointing at an “administration.” It is a reflection of what a plurality, often majority, of people want.

Around 20% of Americans voted Trump, and from polls most don’t like him, but always vote R. Die hard Trumpers are at best 10% of Americans. Trump didn’t even get 50% of the vote.

His views most certainly aren’t what a majority of people want, and he doesn’t try to expand by doing things the majority want. If anything he paints those not completely in his camp, which is the vast majority of Americans, as an enemy.

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