Analysis: U.S. poor are vulnerable to 'neglected' diseases

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: USA Today

Tropical diseases that ravage Africa, Asia and Latin America commonly occur among the poor in the USA, leaving thousands of people shattered by debilitating complications including mental retardation, heart disease and epilepsy, an analysis showed Monday.

The diseases, caused by chronic viral, bacterial and parasitic infections, disproportionately strike women and children and are largely overlooked by doctors, says author Peter Hotez of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, part of Sabin Vaccine Institute.

Hotez says the diseases go untreated in hundreds of thousands of poor people who live mainly in inner cities, the Mississippi Delta, Appalachia and the Mexican borderlands.

In many cases, he says, the infections cause disabilities that trap sufferers in lasting poverty. His analysis, called "Neglected Infections of Poverty in the United States," appears in the journal he edits, PloS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-06-23-neglected-diseases_N.htm?csp=1

[Hydra]

1. Heh

Even if you have money, you're still vulnerable. I had spinal meningitis and was sent to a counselor by my doctor rather than him address why I was spitting up blood by the bucketful.

I'm lucky to have all limbs, fingers and toes.

-----------------

Edit:

I currently have a low-grade virus that I've had since last September. Can't afford to go to the doctor. I guess I'm living proof.

[LeftyMom]

5. That happend with my grandmother's spinal disease.

There was obviously a problem, because she couldn't hold her head straight forward, but since no skeletal issue showed up on a scan, it took years to get her diagnosed, and in the meantime she was sent to shrinks and treated like a hypochondriac. Eventually she got diagnosed with spasmodic torticollis. They treat it now with botox to kill the muscle pulling the head to one side, but back then she just used one hand to hold her head in place and the other to drive.

[Hydra]

7. Man, I'm lucky compared to that

I only spit up a paper towel roll of blood and 2 weeks of migraines and assorted unpleasantness.

Actually, now that I remember it, I spent those days wishing for death. Still, at least have to push my head back in to place to look up straight.

[kimmerspixelated]

9. I don't know if it will work for you,

but I've had a lot of luck with Oreganobiotic- Oil of Oregano supplements. Whenever I feel an infection of any kind, it always helps, plus more Vit C.

[Hydra]

12. *Shudder*

I've had that stuff- NASTY!

I'm taking supplements and drinking orange juice by the gallon. What I really need to do is take some time off of work- it's been non-stop chaos since we were evicted from our home and I had to scramble to find a new place and more money to pay for it.

[kimmerspixelated]

17. True, if you are stressed and not sleeping well,

it's hard to feel well.

[TrogL]

2. Plague and leprosy are making a comeback

Nobody's noticing because they're being called by their fancy names (which escape me at the moment).

[AnneD]

6. Leprosy is Hansen's Disease....

Not sure about Plague but it is caused by Yesenia pestis and is a vector born disease. The last plague happened in Los Angeles in 1924-25.

[Fovea]

13. New Mexico

I believe had a fairly significant outbreak of bubonic plague in 1968.

[AnneD]

14. That wasn't mentioned in the CDC notice...

I suspect they meant a major outbreak-not a few cases (like when it gets to the pneumonia variety). But they do have lots of huanta virus in NM. Had a family have an outbreak when I lived nearby. CDC out there in Moon Suits.

[Kali]

15. there was a case or two in colorado last year IIRC

of course it is endemic in the SW

[slampoet]

3. My mother is STILL dying from Scarlet Fever she aquired 55 years ago.

A lot of people think that Diseases like this only happened in "Little House on the Prairie".


But the fact is that in many areas of the USA these kinds of afflictions affect many poor kids.


In my ma's case she got Scarlet Fever as a young girl and it has caused heart conditions ever since.

The upside though is that most of her brothers and sisters including her dedicated their lives to healthcare when they became the first kids in their family to go to college.

[EFerrari]

4. I somehow got scarlet fever and when I tried to tell my doctor

he said, "No, you don't". He let his nurse call me to confirm the dx. :crazy:

That was 20 years ago when I had insurance. A lot of my generation will struggle through somehow with no insurance, It's ridiculous already and probably costs everyone more than simple prevention.

[awoke_in_2003]

8. That is the problem with our current system...

you can't make profit on preventative maintenance, but you can make a hell of a lot on the "cure". Look at cancer treatments- big money. Cuba just ok'ed a cancer vaccine for distribution- a protein that attacks the cancer with no side effects. We will never see it here.

[EFerrari]

11. Yep. We're pretty screwn right now. No doubt about that. n/t

[kimmerspixelated]

10. But cannot it be safe to say,

that there is a lot more disease in communities with poor sanitation and hand-washing facilities? I think most scientists agree, mainstream and alterntive, that frequent handwashing is ALWAYS the best defense.

[skooooo]

16. So?

...as Cheney would say.