[AuntB]

This is an article you likely won’t see on the news tonight. It was sent today by our border agent friends.

[AuntB]

neverdem, do you still have that ‘health’ ping list?

[SumProVita]

Can this form of leprosy be carried by armadillos?

[Cicero]

Leprosy, TB, a lot of intractable diseases being introduced by immigrants.

I think there was a story back last spring about South Sea Islanders in one of the southern states who had leprosy, too.

Yes, I just looked it up, and it’s Marshallese in Springdale, Arkansas. Working for Tyson Chicken, of course.

http://24ahead.com/blog/archives/007464.html

[gpk9]

Just one teeny little problem with this announcement. They’re never be able to actually make the bacteria cause leprosy. And they never will. Ever.

It’s like all the other diseases they *believe* are caused by one bacteria or another. None of it has ever been proven. They can’t make these alledged disease-causing bacteria cause the disease in experimentation conducted in proper scientific method. They never have. They never will.

Dont’ bother asking for or demanding an explanation of what I’m saying. I don’t owe you or anyone else an explanation.

Medicine is not science. It’s religion. It operates on belief, faith.

[SunkenCiv]

All cases of leprosy, an ancient disease that still maims and kills in the developing world, previously had been thought to be caused by a single species of bacterium, said lead author Xiang-Yang Han, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in Laboratory Medicine at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. "We have identified a second species of leprosy mycobacterium, and in identifying this killing organism we've better defined the disease that it causes, diffuse lepromatous leprosy (DLL)." ...There are hundreds of thousands of new cases of leprosy worldwide each year, but the disease is rare in the United States, with 100-200 new cases annually, mostly among immigrants. Leprosy initially attacks skin and nerve cells.

[LucyT]

Ping.

[gubamyster]

ping

[cricket]

Thanks. . .I think.. .

[Billthedrill]

Very interesting. They're calling it Mycobacterium lepromatosis. It's almost M. leprae but not quite. That may explain some of the variability noticed in treatment across infected populations.

I did a little work with the Mycobacteria long ago in my path lab days. It was all fun until some knucklehead - not me - dropped a petri dish of the stuff on the floor. Ever see what an autoclave does to a pair of tennis shoes?