elfin
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Thu May-31-07 07:35 PM
Original message |
How do you contract drug resistant TB - I always associated it |
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with Russian prisoners or inner city drug users in crowded conditions.
CDC says he is not now "very infectious" - and his wife is negative.
Was he fooling around in his father-in-law's lab?
What is the story here?
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cynatnite
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Thu May-31-07 07:38 PM
Response to Original message |
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I was exposed to TB when I worked in a hospital some years ago.
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Ecumenist
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Thu May-31-07 08:05 PM
Response to Reply #1 |
8. airborne BACTERIA.... a pet peeve of mine. |
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I don't mean to be rude at all..:hi: I especially hate it when I read comments about "flesh-eating virus" and it' a bacteria.
It is VERY CONTAGIOUS...
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cynatnite
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Thu May-31-07 08:23 PM
Response to Reply #8 |
xmas74
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Thu May-31-07 07:40 PM
Response to Original message |
2. A friend was exposed a few years back |
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on a college campus. They had an international community and someone brought it w/ them.
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rox63
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Thu May-31-07 07:44 PM
Response to Original message |
3. Maybe the father-in-law doesn't like his new son-in-law |
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So he brought him home a little present from the office.
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JuniperLea
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Thu May-31-07 07:47 PM
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4. very infectious - wife doesn't have it |
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Doesn't quite make sense, now does it?
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deadmessengers
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Thu May-31-07 07:51 PM
Response to Reply #4 |
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He's not very infectious right now - minimal risk of transmission.
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JuniperLea
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Thu May-31-07 08:03 PM
Response to Reply #5 |
7. Oh sure... that's why they have him secluded... |
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And even his wife is wearing a mask... and they have upped the search from the longer flights to include the shorter flights in Europe.
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deadmessengers
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Thu May-31-07 08:30 PM
Response to Reply #7 |
10. It's just risk management. |
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They're practicing sound risk management here. Risk management is pretty simple: you look at the number of incidents that could be expected to occur if no preventative measures are taken, multiply that by the potential loss per incident, and if that's greater than the cost of taking those preventative measures, then you do it.
In this case, you're looking at a low rate of infection (the number of incidents), but with a VERY high potential loss (TB is expensive to treat, and this kind kills half the people who get it). TB tests, on the other hand, are cheap and simple to do, which is why they're suggesting that people who were on those flights (and thus potentially exposed) get tested.
Let's put it this way: On average, the risk of being infected with HIV via unprotected receptive anal sex with an infected partner is about 1.5% per sex act. Not bad odds, right? But the risk is enormous (a lifetime of extremely expensive drugs, or a virtually certain horrible death), so we tell people to insist that their partners wear a condom. Because although the odds aren't awful, the potential damage is enormous.
The same principle applies here - minimal odds (a low infection rate), but high mortality. Since the mortality rate goes up the longer the disease is allowed to progress, it's better to catch it early than risk an epidemic of a very nasty (and damn near untreatable) strain of TB.
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Mutineer
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Thu May-31-07 07:53 PM
Response to Original message |
6. He'd apparently traveled extensively in third-world countries |
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over the past 6 years. They may never figure out where he got it from. The father-in-law is claiming that they don't even keep the particular strain the son-in-law has in the lab at the CDC.
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AZBlue
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Thu May-31-07 08:43 PM
Response to Reply #6 |
11. Welcome to DU (belatedly)! |
Red State Rebel
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Thu May-31-07 08:50 PM
Response to Original message |
12. My Daughter Contracted TB at Age 2 |
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She got it from a Child Care provider. The problem - they informed us, is that with adults, the germ is carried at the top of the lungs where it can be spread with a cough, etc. Luckily with children it is in the bottom of the lung and thus not easily spread. You can also have it and it not be "active". You can carry the disease in "tuburcules" in the lungs and until they burst from being weakened by a cold, etc. you won't be really contagious.
I'm trying to recall all of this from 22 years ago so I may have some things wrong. We were fortunate that Lori was healed after over a year of antibiotic treatment. The babysitter ended up with her marriage destroyed because of the quarrantine situation.
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Sun May 05th 2024, 05:37 AM
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