Deadly Hepatitis A Outbreaks Are Exposing Crumbling U.S. Public Health Infrastructure

[Auggie]

HuffingtonPost / 12-28-18

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Kristi Haynes knew she had a problem when her eyes turned the color of traffic paint.

Haynes had been feeling strangely tired, but she didn’t have many opportunities to look at herself in a mirror because she’d been homeless for a few months. Her fiance noticed her yellow eyes and freaked out. And that’s how Haynes knew she had caught the disease so many of her friends already had: hepatitis A.

Hepatitis A, a vaccine-preventable disease that attacks the liver and is spread by contaminated fecal matter, is a scourge in developing nations with poor sanitation systems. Imported contaminated food is typically to blame when the disease occurs in developed countries.

But U.S. cases of the disease have tripled in 2018, and the outbreak has nothing to do with imported food.

MORE: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hepatitis-a-outbreak-america_us_5c0ecf0fe4b06484c9fd9d0c

Thank you, Republicans ...

FROM THE LINK: Officials point to declining public health funding to explain the explosion of this preventable disease. More than 56,000 local health department jobs were lost nationwide between 2008 and 2017, according to the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). In that time, STD rates have skyrocketed, the opioid crisis now claims more than 115 lives a day, and 80,000 people died of the flu last year.

[RAB910]

1. "Officials point to declining public health funding"

If Trump and the Republicans aren't killing Americans with pollution they are killing them by stealing their healthcare and gutting public health

They are a bloodthirsty anti-American lot

[DBoon]

2. cuts in subsidized housing since Reagan forced people onto the the streets

our devolution into an impoverished corrupt 3rd world country has been going on for decades

[Auggie]

3. +1,000,000

[UpInArms]

5. From the link:

Officials point to declining public health funding to explain the explosion of this preventable disease. More than 56,000 local health department jobs were lost nationwide between 2008 and 2017, according to the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). In that time, STD rates have skyrocketed, the opioid crisis now claims more than 115 lives a day, and 80,000 people died of the flu last year.

“As funding cuts happen all along over years, it’s really the public health infrastructure that erodes,” said Lilly Kan, the senior director for infectious disease and informatics at NACCHO. “It continues to be a smoldering issue, but then when you have fires like outbreaks like hepatitis A, then it becomes obvious.”

[malaise]

4. Many DUers predicted that a public health disaster would be the logical

conclusion to cuts.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

6. yeah, but look at all the profits for big pharma and insurance!

Do I really need sarcasm tags here?

[SunSeeker]

7. We have similar third world diseases popping up on skid row in downtown Los Angeles.

That's what happens when people have nowhere else to sleep but on streets covered in rats, urine and feces. https://www.democraticunderground.com/104019927

[Auggie]

8. Yeah, diseases: as in plural. A lot more to come. n/t

[akraven]

9. What makes me insane is that the poor (and I am one)

STILL vote for Repukes.

[Auggie]

10. May I suggest (if you haven't already) ...

read this book: The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt. It's a fascinating look into understanding why people may believe, behave, or vote in a certain way.

[akraven]

11. Have it - part of my Thanksgiving gift!

Religion is the worst choice for the poor. Learning (education) is much better. We're poor, but we're not wanting! Gots a ton of books (we recycle them to learning centers and the Salvation Army, as well as Goodwill and a local 2nd hand store.

We also tithe.

[Auggie]

12. Happy reading!