The World Health Organization has a “plan” for getting rid of TB. Part of it involves encouraging the development of new treatments, and part of it involves screening high risk groups: people with compromised immunity (like with HIV), impoverished areas (think the TB that started with the homeless in Florida), and immigrants.
But encouragement doesn’t seem to be budging the US much. As mentioned, there was the TB outbreak in the Jacksonville area that government officials did their best to cover up (it seems to be ongoing, and as of the end of last year had gotten into the high school), and now there may be another cover up among detention camps for immigrant children in Texas and Oklahoma.
Reporters, and even politicians, aren’t allowed access to the camps—so confirmation comes only from anonymous sources who report TB symptoms in the kids (as well as far more cases of every reported disease than is admitted to).
There’s also suggestion that the reports are true because TB cases in Texas have been higher than usual lately. TB is highly contagious, and a giant, expensive pain to treat, requiring a year or more of intense daily medication (that comes with grueling symptoms that can be worse than the disease).
Still, WHO projects that treatment is still highly cost effective because it only gets more expensive as more people catch the cough. But we’d have to acknowledge the problem first.
If you’re in Florida or Texas (New York and California tend to get more cases too) be sure to keep your immune system strong by eating right, sleeping well, exercising, and maybe adding an immune supporting supplement like colloidal silver.
And be sure to take a few BIG steps back from anyone coughing in public.
Are you in the area where there are outbreaks? Are local news outlets informing you? Let us know in the comments:
