
Can America cope with a resurgence of tropical disease? - song
http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/08/can-america-cope-with-a-resurgence-of-tropical-disease/
======
Mz
America has some very serious problems. This is partly an outgrowth of our
lack of good healthcare policies at the national level. I find this so
frustrating. No one seems to know what thread to pull to get these messes to
start unraveling. The haves don't seem to understand that this is a bad thing
to have going on in your back yard. Just because you are wealthy doesn't mean
you are immune.

But people don't want to hear anything like that.

It's so frustrating because it isn't something we _can 't_ improve. It stays
this way because of social inertia.

~~~
rasz_pl
>It stays this way because of social inertia.

Its not inertia, its the same thing that happened to the $75K minimum wage
guy. US people HATE when someone less successful than them gets something "for
free".

~~~
TeMPOraL
Not just US. Ever tried to bring up the topic of Basic Income in Poland? "Why
those lazy subhumans should get money for free?! They'll all become drunks, or
will sit in front of TV all day, getting fat and bringing about the future
from Idiocracy."

This type of approach makes me sick.

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tokenadult
From the article, in the section titled "History":

"Tropical diseases have been affecting people in the American South as long as
humans have been living there. In 2003, archaeologists discovered that
mummified remains in the Rio Grande Valley from more than 1,000 years ago
showed signs of Chagas disease. Transatlantic trade brought the mosquito
_Aedes aegypti_ over from Africa, and it thrived in the long, humid summers
south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Human travelers brought pathogens that could be
transmitted by imported and native mosquitoes. As a result, European settlers
in North America were cut down by repeated epidemics of malaria, yellow fever,
and dengue."

That's why the article title carefully says "resurgence," not implying that
this is anything we haven't seen before. This will be a challenge for medical
personnel and public health personnel in the United States, especially for
people trained farther north in the Temperate Zone like where I live, but
information can travel even faster than disease vectors, and I expect the
long-term trend of age-adjust all-cause mortality, including infectious
disease mortality, dropping over time[1] to continue.

[1]
[http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/2014/018.pdf](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/2014/018.pdf)

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radiorental
I assume this is only going to get worse with rising global temperatures? One
of the biggest disease vectors being insects moving north...

As an aside. I hate to be that HN commenter, but in what scenario is white
text on black readable for articles? Mine eyes are weeping.

~~~
code_duck
You can switch themes on mobile by pulling down the hamburger menu and
selecting black on white.

~~~
radiorental
Thanks! I guess then maybe the reasoning is that mobile lighting conditions
(outside/direct sunlight) meant the white text was more readable, possibly.

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tomkinstinch
If you are interested in reading more about diseases that have seen recent
emergence (or rather, emergent diagnosis[1]), The Coming Plague[2] by Laurie
Garrett, ISBN 0140250913, is a good read. It details the modern origin cases
that led to the characterization of a number of diseases, including Marburg,
Ebola, Legionnaires' Disease, and Lassa fever. It also talks about their
epidemiology and the optimism of the mid-20th century for eradication of
things like malaria, as well as the resulting challenges. The book reads like
a thriller because the scientists involved are heroic and colorful, and have
stories worth telling.

1\.
[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6108/750.full](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6108/750.full)

2\. [http://www.amazon.com/The-Coming-Plague-Emerging-
Diseases/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Coming-Plague-Emerging-
Diseases/dp/0140250913)

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giardini
The same warnings were issued in the late 1980's in Texas but the medical
community was slow in accepting them. I remember circa 1990 telling a medical
student about Chagas' disease in East Texas - she adamantly objected "No, we
don't have that in Texas or North America for that matter. Chagas' is endemic
to South America." I gently suggested that perhaps her textbooks were out of
date and pointed out a report on a local childrens' hospital where Chagas' was
not uncommon. Sounds like they still haven't updated the textbooks BTW.

These diseases are largely been brought in by human immigrants, i.e., it's not
so much infected _bugs_ that are coming North as infected _humans_. Once here,
the diseases spread among the local population. This is another unintended
consequence of modern immigration policy: you get the cooties along with the
people. Once upon a time, long ago, people with seriously infectious diseases
were not allowed into the U.S.

~~~
tomwalker
This is also a major problem in Europe with tuberculosis.

In some parts of London the infection rate is higher than Africa and
resistance is found in over 10% of cases.

The cost of drug treatment for resistant TB is over £50,000 (not including the
high staff costs for specialists, to track down everyone they have been in
contact with etc)

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obblekk
One of the most important factors in eliminating mosquito vectors in the 40s &
50s was absolutely rampant use of DDT. It remains the most cost effective
insect killer. Perhaps soon its use in certain areas will be reconsidered.

~~~
m_mueller
Isn't this just trading with different bad outcomes, e.g. damaging children
from DDT in breast milk?

~~~
giggzy
DDT has been demonised with much good cause, predator bird egg fragility
leading to extinction and near extinction being a red light of many
environmental issues. However, there maybe sensible case for usage of it or
analogues that is prevented because of prejudgement.

We defend against DDT and ignore names we don't know at all.

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xupybd
If you are from NZ you'll understand this.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nOU3jUf1Cg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nOU3jUf1Cg)

Also Dr Ropata is the same actor that plays the clones in the new star wars
films.
[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9pPYDAvBFkA/VH8gH4O5qTI/AAAAAAAAw_...](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9pPYDAvBFkA/VH8gH4O5qTI/AAAAAAAAw_4/WXanmEGlPLg/s1600/Clonetrooper.jpg)

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thomasmarriott
Yes.

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anonymous48
This is quite distressing, showing how our quality of life has actually
regressed by some metrics rather than improved as is normally assumed.
Americans of the 1960s did not have to worry about Chagas, Malaria, or Bed
Bugs. These were parasites that had been eradicated. It even seemed possible
then that TB, a scourge on humanity for centuries, might soon, at least in the
US, meet a similar fate. Now it, like the parasites, has come back full force.

Though neither the author nor the posters here will identify the culprit, I
think it should be obvious to all but the most deluded progressive that this
is a consequence of unchecked mass immigration to the US--a consequence I
doubt economists factor into their models when trying to justify conclusions
about its benefits.

~~~
saryant
Bed bugs are back because we realized the pesticides that kept them at bay had
lots of unwanted consequences so we stopped using them. Actually, they
would've resurged anyways as there's evidence bed bugs were becoming resistant
to many pesticides.

Considering they don't actually carry disease, they're just creepy, I'd hardly
put them in the same category as serious tropical diseases. Buy yourself a
PackTite and relax.

~~~
anonymous48
Bed bugs were eradicated in the US, not kept at bay. They only came back
through their reintroduction by foreigners.

~~~
saryant
Bed bugs were never eradicated in the US. In any case, you're just as likely
to run into them in a five-star Manhattan hotel as you are a fleabag motel in
the Deep South.

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anti-shill
more immigration will solve this problem! Immigration from that affected area
will have a natural resistance, and so america will win again.

