3 ms·

From the article: An tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas has become the largest in recorded history in the US....the CDC started monitoring TB in the US in the

From the article: An tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas has become the largest in recorded history in the US....the CDC started monitoring TB in the US in the 1950s. "This is mainly due to the rapid number of cases in the short amount of time. There are a few other states that currently have large outbreaks that are also ongoing." People with an active infection feel sick and can spread it to others, while people with a latent infection don't feel sick and can't spread it. It is treatable with antibiotics. State public health officials say there is "very low risk to the general public."

ceejayoz 2y ago
> It is treatable with antibiotics. Treating it casually has led to widespread resistance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multidrug-resistant_tuberculosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multidrug-resistant_tuberculos... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensively_drug-resistant_tuberculosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensively_drug-resistant_tub... > People with an active infection feel sick and can spread it to others, while people with a latent infection don't feel sick and can't spread it. https://www.who.int/teams/global-tuberculosis-programme/tb-reports/global-tuberculosis-report-2024/featured-topics/asymptomatic-tb https://www.who.int/teams/global-tuberculosis-programme/tb-r... "Analysis of data from 14 countries in Africa and Asia suggests that about two thirds of global TB transmission may be from asymptomatic TB (95% prediction interval: 27–92%)."
- Spooky23 2y ago
  Yeah… understatement with respect to TB is pretty scary. There’s a limited set of effective antibiotics, some strains are resistant, and some drugs have severe side effects. You have to be a little suspicious of some of this — folks are looking for political reasons for scary disease outbreaks.
- eth0up 2y ago
  >Treating it casually has led to widespread resistance. I have long suspected this as part of why the subject isn't much discussed, despite being more prevalent than most realize. The elephant here is (aside from latent infection) the atypically long duration of treatment, which can exceed 6 months and is harsh. Many, even otherwise responsible people, will founder before the proper end of treatment and this, I think, is what terrifies health professionals - so much, that it almost seems to be avoided. It's probably time we start looking a bit harder for "natural" or alternate treatments. Some in medical journals, are under scrutiny, but inconclusive. Edit: I also think we'll be finding more about latent infections being involved in an array of other ailments, especially when mixed with the ultra prevalent EBV. And EBV is involved in a lot.
  - tbrownaw 2y ago
    > It's probably time we start looking a bit harder for "natural" or alternate treatments. Is the idea that a different label would lead to higher compliance rates?
    - eth0up 2y ago
      Resistance. It's not quite the end of the world if TB becomes impervious to, say, catnip or whatever, which isn't front line medicine. And some options might have a more mechanical rather than biological mechanism/function. Compliance for a 6 month course of just about anything is difficult and more so for something that may seem asymptomatic. Oozing sores, foul oders and overt discomfort would probably help, but alas...
      - Eisenstein 2y ago
        I'm sorry but this doesn't make sense. Antibiotic resistance to TB only affects those who have TB, so if another 'natural' medicine is found and TB gets resistant to it, then it is still just as bad for the people affected. Natural means nothing in this context. Effective medicine is effective medicine, and there is nothing that makes TB less prone to developing a resistance to a 'natural' effective medicine over any other effective medicine.
        eth0up 2y ago
        I admit I slipped into the octogon of HN where animals weak and strong come to test their teeth on impulse. Therefore I must be prepared to write essays on semantics even when I use subtle indicators such as quotes. For the first portion of your reply, I think that if TB became resistant to potatoes with licorice icecream, it would be preferable to having absolutely no recourse with antibiotics. But that's silly. If you are 100% certain that latent TB is innocuous and can't be reactivated, I must admit my logic was flawed. Edit: is not, eg mrsa, becoming resistant to various things in the environment? Biofilms make many bacteria resistant to even alcohol. Staph, ubiquitous and thus exposed to pretty much anything a person's skin is exposed to is probably resistant to many things it previously wasn't. But it remains vulnerable to a few antibiotics, for now.
- JoBrad 2y ago
  On top of it being more resistant, we haven’t made very many new medicines to fight it in the last ~50 years.

ceejayoz 2y ago

> It is treatable with antibiotics. Treating it casually has led to widespread resistance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multidrug-resistant_tuberculosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multidrug-resistant_tuberculos... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensively_drug-resistant_tuberculosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensively_drug-resistant_tub... > People with an active infection feel sick and can spread it to others, while people with a latent infection don't feel sick and can't spread it. https://www.who.int/teams/global-tuberculosis-programme/tb-reports/global-tuberculosis-report-2024/featured-topics/asymptomatic-tb https://www.who.int/teams/global-tuberculosis-programme/tb-r... "Analysis of data from 14 countries in Africa and Asia suggests that about two thirds of global TB transmission may be from asymptomatic TB (95% prediction interval: 27–92%)."

Spooky23 2y ago
Yeah… understatement with respect to TB is pretty scary. There’s a limited set of effective antibiotics, some strains are resistant, and some drugs have severe side effects. You have to be a little suspicious of some of this — folks are looking for political reasons for scary disease outbreaks.
eth0up 2y ago
>Treating it casually has led to widespread resistance. I have long suspected this as part of why the subject isn't much discussed, despite being more prevalent than most realize. The elephant here is (aside from latent infection) the atypically long duration of treatment, which can exceed 6 months and is harsh. Many, even otherwise responsible people, will founder before the proper end of treatment and this, I think, is what terrifies health professionals - so much, that it almost seems to be avoided. It's probably time we start looking a bit harder for "natural" or alternate treatments. Some in medical journals, are under scrutiny, but inconclusive. Edit: I also think we'll be finding more about latent infections being involved in an array of other ailments, especially when mixed with the ultra prevalent EBV. And EBV is involved in a lot.
- tbrownaw 2y ago
  > It's probably time we start looking a bit harder for "natural" or alternate treatments. Is the idea that a different label would lead to higher compliance rates?
  - eth0up 2y ago
    Resistance. It's not quite the end of the world if TB becomes impervious to, say, catnip or whatever, which isn't front line medicine. And some options might have a more mechanical rather than biological mechanism/function. Compliance for a 6 month course of just about anything is difficult and more so for something that may seem asymptomatic. Oozing sores, foul oders and overt discomfort would probably help, but alas...
    - Eisenstein 2y ago
      I'm sorry but this doesn't make sense. Antibiotic resistance to TB only affects those who have TB, so if another 'natural' medicine is found and TB gets resistant to it, then it is still just as bad for the people affected. Natural means nothing in this context. Effective medicine is effective medicine, and there is nothing that makes TB less prone to developing a resistance to a 'natural' effective medicine over any other effective medicine.
      - eth0up 2y ago
        I admit I slipped into the octogon of HN where animals weak and strong come to test their teeth on impulse. Therefore I must be prepared to write essays on semantics even when I use subtle indicators such as quotes. For the first portion of your reply, I think that if TB became resistant to potatoes with licorice icecream, it would be preferable to having absolutely no recourse with antibiotics. But that's silly. If you are 100% certain that latent TB is innocuous and can't be reactivated, I must admit my logic was flawed. Edit: is not, eg mrsa, becoming resistant to various things in the environment? Biofilms make many bacteria resistant to even alcohol. Staph, ubiquitous and thus exposed to pretty much anything a person's skin is exposed to is probably resistant to many things it previously wasn't. But it remains vulnerable to a few antibiotics, for now.
JoBrad 2y ago
On top of it being more resistant, we haven’t made very many new medicines to fight it in the last ~50 years.