Tuesday 21 March 2017
Victorian era scourges make a mockery of our 21st century tech.
London (CNN)Josie Garrett seems like a healthy and happy 24-year-old when we meet her in between classes at University College London where she is studying for a master's degree.
But Garrett is making a tough recovery from a potentially deadly strain of tuberculosis -- a disease she, along with many people, thought was a thing of the past.Six months ago she was seriously ill and being treated in an isolation unit in a London hospital.
Up until recently, Garrett says she wasn't able to do anything.
"I couldn't work, wasn't able to socialize, I wasn't able to kind of live a normal life. It had a huge impact, so the idea of it being done and hopefully not coming back again is amazing," the student says.
Garrett says she felt "complete shock" at her diagnosis.
"I think there is a general sense in this country, at least for me -- which is incorrect -- that infectious diseases are completely eradicated, or that we found some way to get rid of them and that they are 'Victorian' illnesses," she says. "The reality is that's just not the case. It's definitely something people need to be aware of."
Deadlier than Iraq?
Some London neighborhoods have higher rates of tuberculosis than almost anywhere else in the world, as high as 113 per 100,000 people. That's significantly higher than in countries such as Rwanda, Iraq and Guatemala."We think TB is a disease of developing countries or of days gone by, but TB is a disease of today. It certainly was a disease of yesterday, and we need to make sure that it isn't a disease of tomorrow," says Dr. Onkar Sarhota, who is chair of London's Health Committee.
TB is one disease often synonymous with poverty, affecting the most vulnerable.
And it is not the only such disease worrying London's doctors.
Recent studies for Britain's National Health Service found that other diseases, widespread in the 19th and early 20th centuries, are making a comeback.
"There has been a huge rise in scarlet fever -- 14,000 [suspected] cases in the last year, the highest since the 1960s," says Dr. Nuria Martinez-Alier, a London immunologist. "We have seen a rise in the cases of tuberculosis, we've seen a rise in cases of whooping cough, we have seen more measles in the last 10 years than in the last 10 years before that," she warns.
Over the past five years in England, hospital admissions for scarlet fever have risen 136%, scurvy by 38% and cholera by 300%, though the number of scurvy and cholera cases is very small.
TB fightback:
Modern factors like migration are contributing to the resurgence, as well as age-old afflictions: malnutrition, poverty and lack of access to health care.In England, malnutrition has risen by 51% over the past five years, the National Health Service reports.
And there are other factors.
"We are seeing a reduced vaccine uptake, for example with measles; reduced population immunity, for example with whooping cough; increased poverty and more people on the poverty line," Martinez-Alier says.
London health officials credit awareness campaigns and free screening sessions in the city for a steady improvement in the rate of tuberculosis infection this year, though it remains high.In England, malnutrition has risen by 51% over the past five years, the National Health Service reports."It is a serious problem and we need to tackle it," says Dr. Sarhota.
Josie Garrett's recovery from TB will have taken two years when she is finished with her treatment.
She is urging awareness, so other people can get diagnosed faster than she was. "My perception of TB was something Jane Austen heroines had, not someone today."
But Garrett is making a tough recovery from a potentially deadly strain of tuberculosis -- a disease she, along with many people, thought was a thing of the past.Six months ago she was seriously ill and being treated in an isolation unit in a London hospital.
Up until recently, Garrett says she wasn't able to do anything.
"I couldn't work, wasn't able to socialize, I wasn't able to kind of live a normal life. It had a huge impact, so the idea of it being done and hopefully not coming back again is amazing," the student says.
Garrett says she felt "complete shock" at her diagnosis.
"I think there is a general sense in this country, at least for me -- which is incorrect -- that infectious diseases are completely eradicated, or that we found some way to get rid of them and that they are 'Victorian' illnesses," she says. "The reality is that's just not the case. It's definitely something people need to be aware of."
Deadlier than Iraq?
Some London neighborhoods have higher rates of tuberculosis than almost anywhere else in the world, as high as 113 per 100,000 people. That's significantly higher than in countries such as Rwanda, Iraq and Guatemala."We think TB is a disease of developing countries or of days gone by, but TB is a disease of today. It certainly was a disease of yesterday, and we need to make sure that it isn't a disease of tomorrow," says Dr. Onkar Sarhota, who is chair of London's Health Committee.
TB is one disease often synonymous with poverty, affecting the most vulnerable.
And it is not the only such disease worrying London's doctors.
Recent studies for Britain's National Health Service found that other diseases, widespread in the 19th and early 20th centuries, are making a comeback.
"There has been a huge rise in scarlet fever -- 14,000 [suspected] cases in the last year, the highest since the 1960s," says Dr. Nuria Martinez-Alier, a London immunologist. "We have seen a rise in the cases of tuberculosis, we've seen a rise in cases of whooping cough, we have seen more measles in the last 10 years than in the last 10 years before that," she warns.
Over the past five years in England, hospital admissions for scarlet fever have risen 136%, scurvy by 38% and cholera by 300%, though the number of scurvy and cholera cases is very small.
TB fightback:
Modern factors like migration are contributing to the resurgence, as well as age-old afflictions: malnutrition, poverty and lack of access to health care.In England, malnutrition has risen by 51% over the past five years, the National Health Service reports.
And there are other factors.
"We are seeing a reduced vaccine uptake, for example with measles; reduced population immunity, for example with whooping cough; increased poverty and more people on the poverty line," Martinez-Alier says.
London health officials credit awareness campaigns and free screening sessions in the city for a steady improvement in the rate of tuberculosis infection this year, though it remains high.In England, malnutrition has risen by 51% over the past five years, the National Health Service reports."It is a serious problem and we need to tackle it," says Dr. Sarhota.
Josie Garrett's recovery from TB will have taken two years when she is finished with her treatment.
She is urging awareness, so other people can get diagnosed faster than she was. "My perception of TB was something Jane Austen heroines had, not someone today."
Is wikipedia run by the borg?
Wikipedia and the Sociology of Darwinian Belief
David Klinghoffer February 5, 2012 8:12 PM
I wish I worked as efficiently as Wikipedia's editors. Last week I noted here that notwithstanding the impressive volume of pro-ID peer-reviewed publications, by researchers within and outside the intelligent-design movement, Wikipedia's article on ID carries the ridiculously false statement that "The intelligent design movement has not published a properly peer-reviewed article in a scientific journal," with a footnote to the six-years-old Kitzmiller v. Dover decision.
Writing us at ENV, a reader in South Africa promptly took it on himself to try to correct the Wiki article and report back about the results. A worthy gesture, but I could have told him he was probably wasting his time.
As anyone knows who's followed the popular Darwinist blogging sites, Darwinism is an ideological movement seemingly rich in believers unhindered by responsibilities to family or work or both, with little better to do day and night than engage in (usually anonymous) skirmishes on the Internet. Editing the Wiki article, our South African friend inserted references to the 50-plus peer-reviewed articles from our updated list of pro-ID scientific literature. Sure enough, within just 30 minutes, someone had erased his additions and substituted snide and again false language to the effect that:
The Discovery Institute insists that a number of intelligent design articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals.... Critics, largely members of the scientific community, reject this claim, stating that no established scientific journal has yet published an intelligent design article. Rather, intelligent design proponents have set up their own journals with peer review that lacks impartiality and rigor, consisting entirely of intelligent design supporters.
This is preposterous, as anyone who has looked at the list of papers would have to honestly admit. Our South African friend went a few rounds with the Wikipedia editors but, last time I checked, without ultimate success. They kept erasing or editing his edits. The main Wiki article on intelligent design still falsely reports, "The intelligent design movement has not published a properly peer-reviewed article in a scientific journal."
Our friend suggested despairingly,
I'm afraid that the only way to get some balance in Wikipedia is if the [Discovery Institute] appoints people on a full time basis just to monitor and correct the articles...Given how important Wikipedia is as a source to the common man, it might well be a worthwhile investment.
A nice suggestion, if totally unrealistic. Of course he's right, though, about Wikipedia's cultural importance. Many a high school or college student or curious adult will rely on that article and conclude erroneously with Judge Jones, on whose cribbing from the ACLU six years ago the article explicitly relies, that ID has no serious scientific backing.
It's pathetic, but also revealing. As I noted at the American Spectator the other day, Darwinists and other liberals are very big on seeking sociological or medical explanations for the persistent tendency of most Americans to "deny science" by doubting Darwinism, politically correct climate science, and the rest. It tells you something that, in defending their doctrine at Wikipedia, the Darwinian cause can draw on such an impressive body of apparently unemployed and socially isolated devotees.
Intelligent design can't do that. If I had to estimate, based on ample experience, I would say that the sociology of ID leans far, far more in the direction of people tied in with other people -- work, family, friends -- in other words, with reality. We don't live just virtually on the Internet. And so, despite the fact that Darwin-doubting represents a majority view in American culture as a whole, we can't muster the needed forces among the unemployed and isolated to monitor Wikipedia for falsehoods around the clock. We just don't have the time. We have other things to do.
That's a big challenge. But if the sociology of belief means anything -- if you can tell something about an idea from the people who hold it -- it speaks well for our side in the evolution debate and gives some reason for longterm hope.
David Klinghoffer February 5, 2012 8:12 PM
I wish I worked as efficiently as Wikipedia's editors. Last week I noted here that notwithstanding the impressive volume of pro-ID peer-reviewed publications, by researchers within and outside the intelligent-design movement, Wikipedia's article on ID carries the ridiculously false statement that "The intelligent design movement has not published a properly peer-reviewed article in a scientific journal," with a footnote to the six-years-old Kitzmiller v. Dover decision.
Writing us at ENV, a reader in South Africa promptly took it on himself to try to correct the Wiki article and report back about the results. A worthy gesture, but I could have told him he was probably wasting his time.
As anyone knows who's followed the popular Darwinist blogging sites, Darwinism is an ideological movement seemingly rich in believers unhindered by responsibilities to family or work or both, with little better to do day and night than engage in (usually anonymous) skirmishes on the Internet. Editing the Wiki article, our South African friend inserted references to the 50-plus peer-reviewed articles from our updated list of pro-ID scientific literature. Sure enough, within just 30 minutes, someone had erased his additions and substituted snide and again false language to the effect that:
The Discovery Institute insists that a number of intelligent design articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals.... Critics, largely members of the scientific community, reject this claim, stating that no established scientific journal has yet published an intelligent design article. Rather, intelligent design proponents have set up their own journals with peer review that lacks impartiality and rigor, consisting entirely of intelligent design supporters.
This is preposterous, as anyone who has looked at the list of papers would have to honestly admit. Our South African friend went a few rounds with the Wikipedia editors but, last time I checked, without ultimate success. They kept erasing or editing his edits. The main Wiki article on intelligent design still falsely reports, "The intelligent design movement has not published a properly peer-reviewed article in a scientific journal."
Our friend suggested despairingly,
I'm afraid that the only way to get some balance in Wikipedia is if the [Discovery Institute] appoints people on a full time basis just to monitor and correct the articles...Given how important Wikipedia is as a source to the common man, it might well be a worthwhile investment.
A nice suggestion, if totally unrealistic. Of course he's right, though, about Wikipedia's cultural importance. Many a high school or college student or curious adult will rely on that article and conclude erroneously with Judge Jones, on whose cribbing from the ACLU six years ago the article explicitly relies, that ID has no serious scientific backing.
It's pathetic, but also revealing. As I noted at the American Spectator the other day, Darwinists and other liberals are very big on seeking sociological or medical explanations for the persistent tendency of most Americans to "deny science" by doubting Darwinism, politically correct climate science, and the rest. It tells you something that, in defending their doctrine at Wikipedia, the Darwinian cause can draw on such an impressive body of apparently unemployed and socially isolated devotees.
Intelligent design can't do that. If I had to estimate, based on ample experience, I would say that the sociology of ID leans far, far more in the direction of people tied in with other people -- work, family, friends -- in other words, with reality. We don't live just virtually on the Internet. And so, despite the fact that Darwin-doubting represents a majority view in American culture as a whole, we can't muster the needed forces among the unemployed and isolated to monitor Wikipedia for falsehoods around the clock. We just don't have the time. We have other things to do.
That's a big challenge. But if the sociology of belief means anything -- if you can tell something about an idea from the people who hold it -- it speaks well for our side in the evolution debate and gives some reason for longterm hope.
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