Tom Paulson, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 20, 2008
Running counter to a nationwide overall decline in tuberculosis rates, TB cases in Seattle and King County have increased and, in 2007, reached a 30-year-record high of 161 active disease cases—three-quarters of them among people born in other countries.
Tuberculosis, a contagious respiratory disease, today infects one of every three people on the planet and can remain dormant for many years before emerging as illness. About 100,000 King County residents have dormant, or latent, TB infection.
“It’s very concerning,” said Dr. Masa Narita, head of TB control for Public Health—Seattle & King County. It is also evidence of the global nature of infectious disease, Narita said, and should serve as a reminder that 2 million people still die from TB every year.
“It is still one of the biggest killers,” he said. In 2006, Seattle and King County officials had reported a 16 percent increase, with 145 active TB cases then.
State public health officials also announced Thursday an overall increase of 11 percent in 2007 in reported TB cases statewide, to a total of 291 new cases, with 55 percent in King County.
{snip}
Changes in the TB trends often show up first in port cities with high rates of foreign travel, she said, foreshadowing future increases in other communities. Most of the new cases, 75 percent, are being identified among immigrants from Southeast Asia, Africa, former Soviet states and Latin America, Field said.
{snip}
Dr. Tesfai Gabre-Kidan, an infectious-disease specialist in Seattle who emigrated here from Ethiopia in the 1970s, said TB is a huge problem in developing countries. In Africa, Gabre-Kidan said, the AIDS pandemic has helped to both fuel the spread of tuberculosis while inadvertently obscuring the fact that many reported AIDS deaths are actually TB deaths.
“Here in this country, we used to be very active in attacking the threat of TB,” he said. “But we have now let our guard down.”
Gabre-Kidan acknowledges that many immigrants bring their TB infections with them when they move here. But perhaps the high rates of active disease seen among the local immigrant populations are attributable not so much to this simple arithmetic, he said, as to the fact that so many of them lack access to adequate, preventive health care services.
“I think this could also be a root cause,” Gabre-Kidan said.
{snip}
But Narita said it would require screening a half-million people to try to find all of those with dormant infections and still would be a challenge to identify all infected.
“This is a major health problem for the world,” he said. “And we see it reflected here.”
Original article
(Posted on March 21, 2008)
Comments
Well, gee, the rich need cheap maids and gardeners. Surely an increase in the TB rate is a small price to pay to make the lives of the wealthy a little easier.
Posted by Dwayne O. at 8:23 PM on March 21
I remember less than a decade ago reading about the late 1800’s/early 1900’s, and the concerns over tuberculosis. Naturally, it was a major health issue, and embedded itself into the popular consciousness.
It even spawned a sort of erotic/sensuality cult, as poets and writers described TB-stricken young women with flushed lips and pale skin - their delicate blossoming beauty about to be snatched away by the unstoppable disease.
It all seemed so quaint, so antiquated, so far behind our modern era.
Diversity - bringing history back to life.
Posted by ZKR at 9:23 PM on March 21
“…It even spawned a sort of erotic/sensuality cult, as poets and writers described TB-stricken young women with flushed lips and pale skin - their delicate blossoming beauty about to be snatched away by the unstoppable disease…”
Posted by ZKR at 9:23 PM on March 21
LOL! And how right you are.
Don’t forget the delicate coughs into a lace-edged handkerchief(a la Camille).
Reminds me of ‘heroin-chic’ that was such a popular look among the major fashion designers a few years ago, the models looking as if they were about to OD, or already had—or the popular ‘starving anorectic waif’ look with the dark circles under the eyes, sunken cheeks and waxen-looking skin.
This was the height of beauty?
Bon
Posted by BonBon at 10:48 PM on March 21
This may be of interest to some of you.
Doc Holliday:
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/CP-DocHolliday.html
Some excerpts:
“Shortly after starting his dental practice, Doc Holliday discovered that he had contracted tuberculosis – most likely from his mother before she died. His adopted Mexican brother was also diagnosed with the disease and later died from it, so he may have contracted it from his as well.”
Even some of the best get it.
Good day.
Posted by Electrical Engineer at 12:48 PM on March 22
There was a time when US immigration officials would not allow the sick into the country. Why has that changed? I reside outside the US and before given a visa to enter this country, I had to have a physical in the US, which the locals dismissed, and then had to pay for a 2nd physical here in Asia. If Asian countries can reject immigrants and long-term visitors who may be ill, why can’t the US government do the same? But then the Clinton, Bush, Obama, McCain crowd favors amnesty for illegals and high legal immigration. They favor a sick policy.——————————HM
Posted by at 10:49 AM on March 23
When proponents of multiculturalism talk about diversity, how right they are! Where would civilized society be without diverse diseases, diverse gangland graffiti, diverse violence committed by diverse people, and diverse taxes to pay for diverse children fathered by diverse babydaddies!
Posted by ODDL at 11:32 AM on March 23
The good news here is that these TB cases, many of which are doubtless multi-drug-resistant, will be coughing in the homes and businesses of the same wealthy elites who refuse to hire Americans at living wages.
I am officially calling this a big, fat “Not My Problem.”
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 1:06 PM on March 24
One of the reasons that TB is now proliferating especially in Africa where the very difficult to cure version has killed thousands, is the high incidence of HIV/AIDS. Those who have poor immune systems readily catch TB but another major problem that needs to be addressed NOW is the fact that air recirculating on jet aircraft with one or more passengers with such an infectious air-borne contact disease can cause the disease to spread rapidly despite the social standing and health of the passengers.
You have been warned. Write to your Representatives now to stop any epidemics.
Posted by Brian Deller at 4:57 PM on March 24
