Thursday, February 3, 2011

Tuberculosis in Lake Worth

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A Lake Worth High School student has TB. The only thing that I am surprised about is that it has taken this long for someone to be diagnosed with tuberculosis. The U.S. essentially has controlled TB until the large influx of immigrants.

Not only is illegal immigration a "hot" topic, but there are many cities with large illegal immigrant populations such as Dallas County and Texas as a whole with illegals coming from countries where the disease is endemic.

Illegal immigration and American medicine.

You might not notice any Symptoms until the disease is quite advanced. As Wikipedia says, when people suffering from active pulmonary TB cough, sneeze, speak, or spit, they expel infectious aerosol droplets 0.5 to 5 in diameter. A single sneeze can release up to 40,000 droplets. (The next time someone sneezes near you, run like hell). Each one of these droplets may transmit the disease, since the infectious dose of tuberculosis is very low and inhaling fewer than ten bacteria may cause an infection.

Why are poor people, homeless people, immigrants and refugees statistically more vulnerable to TB?

Because a person’s natural immunity to disease suffers because of poor nutrition and stressful lifestyles. Also living in overcrowded housing makes the spread of TB more likely.

Just think, this could be spreading City-wide.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We've allowed the Haitians free access to our country. Haiti has the highest per capita tuberculosis (TB) burden in the Latin America and Caribbean region. After HIV/AIDS, TB is the country’s greatest infectious cause of mortality in both youth and adults