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posted by n1 on Tuesday July 07 2015, @12:32AM   Printer-friendly
from the xdr-transcending-networks dept.

A patient with extensively drug-resistant TB flew from Mumbai to Chicago, and the deadly disease could become an infamous export due to problems in India's public health system

[...] Now, difficult-to-kill TB is no longer just India's nightmare. In June U.S. health authorities confirmed that an Indian patient carried this extreme form of the infection, called XDR-TB, across the ocean to Chicago. The patient drove from there to visit relatives as far away as Tennessee and Missouri. Health officials in several states are tracking down everyone with whom the patient—who is now quarantined and being treated at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland—had prolonged contact. The disease can be cured in only 30 percent of patients and sometimes requires surgery to remove infected parts of lungs. Although TB's slow rate of infection makes explosive epidemics unlikely, the Chicago episode shows how easy it might be for the illness to become a worldwide export.

Yet until recently Indian public health officials remained reluctant to admit there's a problem, says Nerges Mistry, director of the Mumbai-based Foundation for Medical Research. "They were always trying to deny it [existed]," she says. (Neither the head of India's Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) nor Mumbai's main tuberculosis control official—both of whom are new to their posts—responded to interview requests from Scientific American.)

[...] If there are indeed many people with resistant germs, it heightens the chances of those pathogens leaving the country for the rest of the world. Nearly a million Indians traveled to the U.S. in 2014, compared with less than three million from all of central Asia. More and more middle-class Indians are being diagnosed with TB, and although the patient who carried XDR-TB to the U.S. was immediately placed in isolation, India has no provisions for quarantines or travel restrictions.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/supercharged-tuberculosis-made-in-india1/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ScientificAmerican-News+%28Content%3A+News%29

http://www.cdc.gov/tb/publications/factsheets/drtb/xdrtb.htm
http://www.medicinenet.com/extensively_drug-resistant_tuberculosis_xdr_tb/article.htm
http://www.who.int/tb/challenges/xdr/faqs/en/

Yes, their headline is sensationalist - but there really IS a problem here, as evidenced by the CDC, WHO, and other organizations. Perhaps the problem wasn't created by India's restructured medical school system, but it has almost certainly been increased by it.

As reported by The Times of India last year:

The SN Medical College's trauma centre which became 'functional' in 2011 is yet to conduct a surgery. This came to UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav's attention when he conducted a surprise inspection of the centre on Friday.

[...] "Not a single serious patient has ever been treated at the centre. Whenever a minister or a dignitary plans to pay a visit to the centre, a few are admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU) to 'show' them," said a doctor, who did not wish to be named. He added that a ward boy has been put on duty in the ICU just to keep an eye that no one steals anything from there.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by linuxrocks123 on Tuesday July 07 2015, @08:31AM

    by linuxrocks123 (2557) on Tuesday July 07 2015, @08:31AM (#206038) Journal

    *shrug*, I see no problem with the fire department's policy. If you're stupid enough not to pay $75 a year to fund the fire department, yet you will be significantly damaged if your property catches fire, you deserve what's coming to you.

    Of course, taxes are usually used to fund fire departments ... but extremely rural areas might not have enough of a tax base to do that. And, a lot of people who own property there might not really care if their vacant lots catch fire. So, a voluntary fee policy makes sense in circumstances like that.

    Why do you think this article says anything bad about the US, other than that there are some idiots in the US, as there are everywhere?

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday July 07 2015, @10:39AM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday July 07 2015, @10:39AM (#206059) Journal

    What do they think will happen if the fire does not conveniently confine itself to the property of the shirker and becomes a general conflagration? I don't know if that's a big risk in rural Tennessee, but it certainly is out West where I grew up. Put the frickin' fire out, jackass fire department!

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 2) by linuxrocks123 on Tuesday July 07 2015, @11:47AM

      by linuxrocks123 (2557) on Tuesday July 07 2015, @11:47AM (#206079) Journal

      Well, if you read the link, you would see that the fire department will respond if the fire spreads to a neighbor's property and that neighbor has paid the $75 fee. They will then contain the fire so it doesn't spread.

      But they'll still let the would-be free-rider's house burn to the ground.

      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @03:23PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @03:23PM (#206139)

        This is not humane. If you wonder why this is not humane, you certainly do not have the capacity to feel for another person. I would not wish to be associated or live anywhere near a human being such as you.

        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by linuxrocks123 on Tuesday July 07 2015, @04:56PM

          by linuxrocks123 (2557) on Tuesday July 07 2015, @04:56PM (#206163) Journal

          There's no reason to resort to personal attacks here.

          It's a difficult situation ... I'll grant you that. But here are the facts that led to this:
          1. The county chose not to use its tax revenue to fund a fire department.
          2. A "city" of ~2000 people in the county decided to fund a volunteer fire department -- probably very cash-strapped, but effective.
          3. This city offered a fire protection subscription that rural land owners in the county but not the city could buy for $75 a year.

          No one can force the people in the county to pay for fire protection, because the city can only tax within its limits. No one can force the city to provide fire protection outside of its city limits. So, if you want fire protection, you pay the $75 fee. If you don't, the fire department doesn't provide fire protection for you. Fire departments, even volunteer fire departments, cost money to run and a city of 2000 people can probably just barely afford to provide one. If they don't charge that fee to the county landowners who want fire service, they'd probably have to shut down. And, if it gets out that they'll put out a fire at your house even if you don't pay the fee, a lot of people will likely stop paying. And then there's no more fire department.

          It's a shame his house burned down. But he was either trying to free-ride at the city's expense (most likely), or he thought he didn't need fire protection even though he was apparently intentionally burning his trash on his property (which btw isn't that uncommon in rural areas). In either case, he made a poor decision, and, unfortunately, there were consequences for it.

          I may have been a little strong saying he "deserved" it, but I do think free-riding off of a volunteer fire department is pretty damn antisocial, so that's where that was coming from. If I were actually there at the scene of the fire, of course, I'd feel really bad for the guy regardless.

          Still, if that city wants a fire department ... that's what they have to do. If it's "inhumane" to let one guy's house burn down, it's a lot more inhumane to not have a fire department and therefore let a lot of people's houses burn down.

          The right solution, one might say, is to have the county provide the fire department instead of the city. But, well, like I said elsewhere, there might be land owners there with undeveloped land who don't want to pay the taxes to run a countywide fire department. There often aren't perfect solutions to problems such as these.

          • (Score: 2) by http on Tuesday July 07 2015, @07:58PM

            by http (1920) on Tuesday July 07 2015, @07:58PM (#206206)

            If the fire department waits until it reaches the property line of the person who paid them, it's going to be harder to stop it from taking out the next house. Fire's like that. Also, you did say "you deserve what's coming to you." After letting that loose, you should hardly be surprised by a personal attack, even if you think you don't deserve it.

            --
            I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.
            • (Score: 2) by linuxrocks123 on Wednesday July 08 2015, @05:43AM

              by linuxrocks123 (2557) on Wednesday July 08 2015, @05:43AM (#206352) Journal

              If the fire department waits until it reaches the property line of the person who paid them, it's going to be harder to stop it from taking out the next house.

              That's sometimes true; in those cases, the firefighters use their professional judgment as to what the minimum they need to do to contain the fire is, and then do that minimum. Sometimes this might result in a free-loader's house getting put out; more often it just results in part of their lawn not getting burnt.

              Also, you did say "you deserve what's coming to you."

              English has a concept called the impersonal you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impersonal_you [wikipedia.org]

              That said, random personal attacks are par for the course on Slashdot/SoylentNews, so you're correct that it wasn't particularly surprising.

        • (Score: 1) by rcamera on Tuesday July 07 2015, @05:30PM

          by rcamera (2360) on Tuesday July 07 2015, @05:30PM (#206169) Homepage Journal

          The fire started when the Cranicks' grandson was burning trash near the family home. As it grew out of control, the Cranicks called 911, but the fire department from the nearby city of South Fulton would not respond.

          and

          South Fulton's mayor said that the fire department can't let homeowners pay the fee on the spot, because the only people who would pay would be those whose homes are on fire.

          and

          "Insurance is going to pay for what money I had on the policy, looks like. But like everything else, I didn't have enough."

          say it all. the family burned down their own trailer and were upset that they couldn't pay for fire department service after-the-fact. this is after the district voted to shutter their own fire department, if memory serves.

          i recall reading back when this was actual news that it was the 2nd or 3rd time the fire department responded to garbage fires spread to the residence for this same lot, and the owner still refused to pay. i guess it's because the FD put the fire out the last time (or two) without being paid the annual fee - they figured they could get away with it again. not to mention the FD's insurance only covered injuries (of FD personnel) for in-district injuries OR on out-of-district lots they were paid to cover.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @08:35PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @08:35PM (#206217)

    Really stupid policy....IMHO government exists to better the society we live in. Just charge everybody the $75 as part of the Tax base and be done with it...How in the world is rural Tennessee society better off by allowing a few guys with vacant land to keep their $75.