9 ms·

Brain Parasites, California’s Hidden Health Problem

95 points by georgecmu 14y ago

onetimeuse001 14y ago
all other things aside, that $66K tag can send 95% to see a bankruptcy lawyer.
- dmix 14y ago
  "The most common form of payment is Medicaid, a tax-funded public service. In Los Angeles County, the economic impact is even more pronounced, costing $66,000 on average, the increase likely due to the high cost of health care in the state, says Frank Sorvillo, a University of Los Angeles professor of epidemiology."
  - onetimeuse001 14y ago
    not everyone has Medicaid, usually the lower middle class gets hosed (too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but barely making ends meet.) Now that you mentioned it, they probably they charge individuals well over $100K if Medicaid pays $66k
mbreese 14y ago
Thanks... and now I have something else to be paranoid about.
- jtheory 14y ago
  Your risk isn't far off from your risk of getting struck by lightning, and a tiny fraction of the risk you'll get in a car crash. There's no limit of the ills that might befall you, if you're willing to dip that low (honestly, I've no idea why the article is written as if this is a big deal); so you can save your paranoia for something a bit higher up the scale. :)
pfedor 14y ago
The CDC says an estimated 1,900 people are diagnosed with neurocysticercosis within the United States yearly. In other words, on the same order as the number of people who die from cancer per day in the US. I guess I'm going to continue to be more worried about other health problems.
- maxerickson 14y ago
  Whether you choose to worry about it or not, California might be able to save an awful lot of money with interventions that avoid a $66,000 surgery.
  - yummyfajitas 14y ago
    Or they might not. According to the article, the early treatment is "hundreds of dollars" - for simplicity I'll assume it's $660. If we apply early treatment to 100 people for every surgery prevented, we merely break even. Early treatment and disease screening is not a panacea. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it's more harmful than doing nothing.
    - maxerickson 14y ago
      Sure, that's why I said might, the specifics matter a whole lot.
    - egypturnash 14y ago
      We also avoid a lot of misery for that one person who'd need surgery.
      - rogerbinns 14y ago
        And if we are playing economics, while they experience that misery they also aren't earning money or paying taxes resulting in lost productivity. Their family is also likely sidelined for a while so that adds to reduced productivity, taxes and income to places they frequent.
SlipperySlope 14y ago
This parasite can be eradicated worldwide. We need pigs to be penned where they cannot eat human feces - its that simple. Who else thinks that if the Hebrews had figured that out long ago, then Hebrew and Muslim diet restrictions might today be more permissive?
- onetimeuse001 14y ago
  This parasite can be eradicated worldwide. We need pigs to be penned where they cannot eat human feces - its that simple. Not simple at all. A trip outside the first world will tell you that raising pigs is not as easy as you make it. Not every family has land and resources avail to raise pigs as you said it.
  - SlipperySlope 14y ago
    Perhaps the goal is simply stated, but the solutions are complex. The main resource lacking is education about proper pig husbandry. See: http://cnia.inta.gov.ar/helminto/A%20Cisticercosis/Improving%20pig%20husbandry%20in%20tropical%20resour.pdf http://cnia.inta.gov.ar/helminto/A%20Cisticercosis/Improving...
  - johnchristopher 14y ago
    Moreoever pigs are in direct competition with humans for food. That's almost certaily why ancestral middle-eastern tribes had taboo on raising pigs and favoured goose and cows that feed on herbs (humans and pigs can't digest grass wich is based on azot).
    - SlipperySlope 14y ago
      Agree with your premise, but fault the probability of your conclusion due to the written record left by Hebrew scholars who described pigs as "unclean". Its easy to see how an animal that eats human feces could be viewed that way.
      - onetimeuse001 14y ago
Tichy 14y ago
I was half expecting an article about startup fever.
david_shaw 14y ago
Not directly related to the article, but it seems pretty risky (and potentially not HIPAA compliant) to release photographs of software with protected health information on them.[1] I do a lot of work with security in the healthcare field, and I'm pretty sure it's a big no-no to release information like that. Where it gets interesting is that I'm confident that the patient herself okayed the information... so where does that leave responsibility for the PHI? I don't actually know the answer, but I'd certainly be interested in finding out. [1]: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/files/2012/09/MIB7.jpg http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/files/2012/09...
- maxerickson 14y ago
  Cursory googling suggests it is fine. E.g.: http://www.rtnda.org/pages/media_items/rtndas-guide-to-health-coverage-under-hipaa427.php http://www.rtnda.org/pages/media_items/rtndas-guide-to-healt...
jgrahamc 14y ago
One prominent (at least in this community) sufferer of this is Sarah Lane (of TechTV and TWiT). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Lane#Personal_life http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Lane#Personal_life "On October 11, 2009, Lane was at a Los Angeles restaurant with a friend when she experienced a severe tonic–clonic seizure, went into spasms and blacked out. It was apparently her first such seizure. She was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she apparently stayed for a couple of days before being diagnosed with a lesion on her brain and eventually put on anti-seizure medications and discharged. Lane wrote on her blog that further diagnosis revealed that neurocysticercosis tumors have developed as a result of her contracting cysticercosis." http://www.sarahlane.com/blog/2009/11/1/sarah-the-goddess-of-brain-tumors-part-2.html http://www.sarahlane.com/blog/2009/11/1/sarah-the-goddess-of...
- speg 14y ago
  IIRC, she also spent a year traveling the world before this happened. I think I remember her saying she picked up the parasite abroad.
jfb 14y ago
Adds to the list of things I won't miss about California.
- iProject 14y ago
  Actually, in the details of the story you find that you can "enjoy" the infection elsewhere... "Only five states — New York, California, Texas, Oregon and Illinois — report the disease, and the data is inconsistent. Oftentimes, departments rely on each other to deal with paperwork, and the numbers are never recorded, Smith says. As a result, not much is known about tapeworm outbreaks in the U.S. — or the parasites themselves." It also sounds as though the long dormancy of the symptoms make it extremely difficult to determine where it was contracted.

95 points by georgecmu 14y ago

onetimeuse001 14y ago

all other things aside, that $66K tag can send 95% to see a bankruptcy lawyer.

dmix 14y ago
"The most common form of payment is Medicaid, a tax-funded public service. In Los Angeles County, the economic impact is even more pronounced, costing $66,000 on average, the increase likely due to the high cost of health care in the state, says Frank Sorvillo, a University of Los Angeles professor of epidemiology."
- onetimeuse001 14y ago
  not everyone has Medicaid, usually the lower middle class gets hosed (too much money to qualify for Medicaid, but barely making ends meet.) Now that you mentioned it, they probably they charge individuals well over $100K if Medicaid pays $66k

mbreese 14y ago

Thanks... and now I have something else to be paranoid about.

jtheory 14y ago
Your risk isn't far off from your risk of getting struck by lightning, and a tiny fraction of the risk you'll get in a car crash. There's no limit of the ills that might befall you, if you're willing to dip that low (honestly, I've no idea why the article is written as if this is a big deal); so you can save your paranoia for something a bit higher up the scale. :)

pfedor 14y ago

The CDC says an estimated 1,900 people are diagnosed with neurocysticercosis within the United States yearly. In other words, on the same order as the number of people who die from cancer per day in the US. I guess I'm going to continue to be more worried about other health problems.

maxerickson 14y ago
Whether you choose to worry about it or not, California might be able to save an awful lot of money with interventions that avoid a $66,000 surgery.
- yummyfajitas 14y ago
  Or they might not. According to the article, the early treatment is "hundreds of dollars" - for simplicity I'll assume it's $660. If we apply early treatment to 100 people for every surgery prevented, we merely break even. Early treatment and disease screening is not a panacea. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it's more harmful than doing nothing.
  - maxerickson 14y ago
    Sure, that's why I said might, the specifics matter a whole lot.
  - egypturnash 14y ago
    We also avoid a lot of misery for that one person who'd need surgery.
    - rogerbinns 14y ago
      And if we are playing economics, while they experience that misery they also aren't earning money or paying taxes resulting in lost productivity. Their family is also likely sidelined for a while so that adds to reduced productivity, taxes and income to places they frequent.

SlipperySlope 14y ago

This parasite can be eradicated worldwide. We need pigs to be penned where they cannot eat human feces - its that simple. Who else thinks that if the Hebrews had figured that out long ago, then Hebrew and Muslim diet restrictions might today be more permissive?

onetimeuse001 14y ago
This parasite can be eradicated worldwide. We need pigs to be penned where they cannot eat human feces - its that simple. Not simple at all. A trip outside the first world will tell you that raising pigs is not as easy as you make it. Not every family has land and resources avail to raise pigs as you said it.
- SlipperySlope 14y ago
  Perhaps the goal is simply stated, but the solutions are complex. The main resource lacking is education about proper pig husbandry. See: http://cnia.inta.gov.ar/helminto/A%20Cisticercosis/Improving%20pig%20husbandry%20in%20tropical%20resour.pdf http://cnia.inta.gov.ar/helminto/A%20Cisticercosis/Improving...
- johnchristopher 14y ago
  Moreoever pigs are in direct competition with humans for food. That's almost certaily why ancestral middle-eastern tribes had taboo on raising pigs and favoured goose and cows that feed on herbs (humans and pigs can't digest grass wich is based on azot).
  - SlipperySlope 14y ago
    Agree with your premise, but fault the probability of your conclusion due to the written record left by Hebrew scholars who described pigs as "unclean". Its easy to see how an animal that eats human feces could be viewed that way.
    - onetimeuse001 14y ago

Tichy 14y ago

I was half expecting an article about startup fever.

david_shaw 14y ago

Not directly related to the article, but it seems pretty risky (and potentially not HIPAA compliant) to release photographs of software with protected health information on them.[1] I do a lot of work with security in the healthcare field, and I'm pretty sure it's a big no-no to release information like that. Where it gets interesting is that I'm confident that the patient herself okayed the information... so where does that leave responsibility for the PHI? I don't actually know the answer, but I'd certainly be interested in finding out. [1]: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/files/2012/09/MIB7.jpg http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/files/2012/09...

maxerickson 14y ago
Cursory googling suggests it is fine. E.g.: http://www.rtnda.org/pages/media_items/rtndas-guide-to-health-coverage-under-hipaa427.php http://www.rtnda.org/pages/media_items/rtndas-guide-to-healt...

jgrahamc 14y ago

One prominent (at least in this community) sufferer of this is Sarah Lane (of TechTV and TWiT). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Lane#Personal_life http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Lane#Personal_life "On October 11, 2009, Lane was at a Los Angeles restaurant with a friend when she experienced a severe tonic–clonic seizure, went into spasms and blacked out. It was apparently her first such seizure. She was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she apparently stayed for a couple of days before being diagnosed with a lesion on her brain and eventually put on anti-seizure medications and discharged. Lane wrote on her blog that further diagnosis revealed that neurocysticercosis tumors have developed as a result of her contracting cysticercosis." http://www.sarahlane.com/blog/2009/11/1/sarah-the-goddess-of-brain-tumors-part-2.html http://www.sarahlane.com/blog/2009/11/1/sarah-the-goddess-of...

speg 14y ago
IIRC, she also spent a year traveling the world before this happened. I think I remember her saying she picked up the parasite abroad.

jfb 14y ago

Adds to the list of things I won't miss about California.

iProject 14y ago
Actually, in the details of the story you find that you can "enjoy" the infection elsewhere... "Only five states — New York, California, Texas, Oregon and Illinois — report the disease, and the data is inconsistent. Oftentimes, departments rely on each other to deal with paperwork, and the numbers are never recorded, Smith says. As a result, not much is known about tapeworm outbreaks in the U.S. — or the parasites themselves." It also sounds as though the long dormancy of the symptoms make it extremely difficult to determine where it was contracted.