Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Disease Without a Cure Spreads Quietly in the West

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 62 posts

Re: A Disease Without a Cure Spreads Quietly in the West

#51

Post by uxp »

healthenclave wrote: post #43
graycat wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In some cases the fungal treatment is longer than usual eg: Nail infection, ... I believe I got that and roughly beat it! It only took a few years! Doing some rough carpentry, I dropped a 2 x 4 on my left big toe. No big pain. But later it appeared that I had cracked the nail. Later the nail began to crumble -- likely a fungus among us! Eventually the nail crumbled its way nearly all the way back to the white part.…

LOL glad you have your toe nail back. The treatment would have been much faster had you taken Oral Anti-Fungal Meds. I understand your concern but if you read the side effects even Aspirin has a TRUCK LOAD of 'em. But most of the serious side effects are extremely rare. On a related note people complain about Side effects of Meds all the time (and Rightly so) but continue to live un-healthy lifestyles (smoke, loads o…

> On a related note people complain about Side effects of Meds all the time (and Rightly so) but continue to live un-healthy lifestyles (smoke, loads of Alcohol, Trans Fat, etc) which is a little Ironic :)

I really hate this argument. Life is not binary. That statement is not ironic.

I might want to be a healthy individual, but I'm not required to go on a raw food vegan or paleo diet in order to do. Griseofulvin or it's friends, however, is designed to cure an infection, and taking it does not require me to quit eating sugars, carbs and alcohols or stop smoking, rock climbing or breaking the speed limit on the highway.

Re: A Disease Without a Cure Spreads Quietly in the West

#52

Post by hkmurakami »

rwmj wrote: post #4

Also, a new coronovirus in France and the middle east, which although it's killed 50% of the people who've caught it so far is probably not going to kill us all[1]. Also H7N9 (a new bird flu), although it's a bit of a lightweight having killed a mere 20% of sufferers. It may not spread human to human, although we don't know that, and this one hasn't yet reached "the West". [1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-2317957…

I remember hearing that the bird flu (during the original outbreak) was called H1N1 so I got curious to find out how many substrains have been identified thus far.

I was surprised to find that there are currently 35 strains of bird flu listed! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avian_influenza_virus#Contract...

Re: A Disease Without a Cure Spreads Quietly in the West

#53

Post by caf »

graycat wrote: post #40
healthenclave wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well Fungal cells walls have ergosterol which we humans don't and that is a particular target site for many anti-fungals. In some cases the fungal treatment is longer than usual eg: Nail infection, because it takes very long for the drug to reach the site. The treatment is around 3 months + In most common opportunist fungal infections a few doses of anti-fungal does cure and treat the infection. Also most Healthy ind…

> In some cases the fungal treatment is longer than usual eg: Nail infection, ... I believe I got that and roughly beat it! It only took a few years! Doing some rough carpentry, I dropped a 2 x 4 on my left big toe. No big pain. But later it appeared that I had cracked the nail. Later the nail began to crumble -- likely a fungus among us! Eventually the nail crumbled its way nearly all the way back to the white part.…

Aren't topicals that are absorbed through the skin also broken down by the liver?

Re: A Disease Without a Cure Spreads Quietly in the West

#54

Post by voidlogic »

healthenclave wrote: post #17
300bps wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>doesn't every place have its own local diseases and parasites??? You're right. I live in the mid-Atlantic region of the country. Two months ago, we went hiking in the woods and my wife and I forgot to check our three kids for ticks until the next day. My 4 year old son had two ticks on him. A week later, bulls-eye rash about 5 inches in diameter appeared on his back around one of the tick bites. Three weeks of antib…

Quite right .. Untreated Borrellia (Lyme's Disease) can actually be very severe (cardiac, large joint and cns involvement). You should always has some kind of pest-repellent on yourself in case you plan to camp. Good thing you son had very TYPICAL presentation and history - H/o Hike in the woods , followed by rash with central clearing (bull's eye). Lyme's disease is Endemic in the NE USA and some part of central US…

If only the crazy people hadn't won I would be able to get a Borrellia vaccine, where I live I assume I will get Lyme's Disease before I die of old age.

What really gets me angry is I can vaccinate my dog... I've been looking into vaccine compatibility...

Re: A Disease Without a Cure Spreads Quietly in the West

#55

Post by voidlogic »

ommunist wrote: post #39

Looks like a hoax for me. Fungal infections are medically treated, even if your lungs are affected with, say, Candida after sharing some shisha in a dirty moroccan place.

While the human immune system does a good job with most fungal infections, human medicine is very poor at treating all but the topical ones.

Re: A Disease Without a Cure Spreads Quietly in the West

#56

Post by gaadd33 »

Alex3917 wrote: post #31
atwebb wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any more information about that? I zest the peels often and enjoy a gin and tonic with lime, would buying organic or from a specific producer help avoid it? The cost should be minimal for these items.

http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/pesticide.jsp?pesticide=604 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enilconazole http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiabendazole

At what dosage are those antifungals effective?

It appears that the highest amount of Tiabendazole found is 0.79mg/kg so I would guess on an individual rind it would be roughly 0.1mg if that. Given dosage amounts seem to be about 25mg/kg/day I would guess it would take an obscene amount of it to cause any sort of bodily reaction. Wouldn't this concern be on par with consuming things that contain deadly things but in ppb or ppt quantities?

Re: A Disease Without a Cure Spreads Quietly in the West

#57

Post by Alex3917 »

sliverstorm wrote: post #48
Alex3917 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever actually heard anyone mention the application of anti-fungals to citrus fruit rinds in the first place? Because I've never even heard of it outside of mycology circles, and there are virtually no Google results despite the fact that the practice is ubiquitous.

How does "There is virtually no evidence that this is even done" translate to "This is a big problem"? At least in my book, lack of evidence doesn't count as evidence.

Actually a Google Scholar search for 'citrus postharvest antifungal treatments' does show that this is in fact the standard operating procedure. E.g. this paper starts out with a summary of the current state of conventional agriculture:

http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/234-1524.pdf

It's just that a more simple Google search like 'citrus antifungal' doesn't turn up anything.

Re: A Disease Without a Cure Spreads Quietly in the West

#58

Post by graycat »

caf wrote: post #53
graycat wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In some cases the fungal treatment is longer than usual eg: Nail infection, ... I believe I got that and roughly beat it! It only took a few years! Doing some rough carpentry, I dropped a 2 x 4 on my left big toe. No big pain. But later it appeared that I had cracked the nail. Later the nail began to crumble -- likely a fungus among us! Eventually the nail crumbled its way nearly all the way back to the white part.…

Aren't topicals that are absorbed through the skin also broken down by the liver?

I don't know.

Or maybe after all the topical I used, enough was absorbed that in effect I had internal medication. Or, I used enough topical to kill all the fungus in my shoes, socks, etc. so that the next time the nail grew out there wasn't any fungus. It does appear that there was some infection on other nails on the same foot. I never put topical on those other nails, but they have cleaned up, as they have grown out, along with the nail on the big toe that finally grew out healthy.

For a liver, supposedly one of its main roles is to get rid of molecules it doesn't like to see, possibly including anti-fungus molecules.

Re: A Disease Without a Cure Spreads Quietly in the West

#59

Post by Alex3917 »

gaadd33 wrote: post #56
Alex3917 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/pesticide.jsp?pesticide=604 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enilconazole http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiabendazole

At what dosage are those antifungals effective? It appears that the highest amount of Tiabendazole found is 0.79mg/kg so I would guess on an individual rind it would be roughly 0.1mg if that. Given dosage amounts seem to be about 25mg/kg/day I would guess it would take an obscene amount of it to cause any sort of bodily reaction. Wouldn't this concern be on par with consuming things that contain deadly things but in…

"Wouldn't this concern be on par with consuming things that contain deadly things but in ppb or ppt quantities?"

It's not going to be enough to be toxic to humans. The issue is whether it's either introducing antifungal resistant fungi into your body, or causing fungi already in your body to become antifungal resistant.

Re: A Disease Without a Cure Spreads Quietly in the West

#60

Post by [deleted] »

kafkaesque wrote: post #15
notatoad wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>doesn't every place have its own local diseases and parasites? Exactly. This whole article feels like the sort of ego piece you only get out of places like LA or NYC. Every place on earth has diseases and other medical problems caused by local environmental factors. To give it that a name like "valley fever" is to trivialize the fact that the exact same phenomenon occurs everywhere else in the world too.

I agree that the article is too California-centric, but if you follow the link to the Valley Fever Center, the first thing it says is "Two-thirds of all U.S. Valley Fever infections are contracted in Arizona"[0]. I'm not saying this is the next epidemic in the 'West', but I do feel a watchful eye is needed. I live in LA, I'm a runner and don't live in a coastal city. My lungs are very susceptible to bad air (particul…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN