Posted on 05/22/2005 2:19:16 PM PDT by wagglebee
I don't think there is much ethnic difference here. It is more likely to occur in crowded (generally poor) communities where many infections spread better and in which it had already been present. I think of India, Nigeria, Brazil and SE Asia as the main remaining trouble spots. Central America has some, but not as much as the those. Medieval Europe had a lot of it so Caucasians certainly were susceptible then. I wouldn't expect much resistance to evolve since then to such a slow killer, unless it was as a side benefit to bubonic plague resistance. Historically some long isolated populations (e.g. Hawaii) were less resistant. There actually has been quite a bit of research on how the immune system handles or fails to handle leprosy, but I'm not up to speed on it. I think the 3% susceptible figure came from epidemiological models of its spread.
My father used to sing us this song when we were kids. He's so tone deaf that I have no idea what the tune really is, but the words go like this:
"Leprosy!
Omigosh I got leprosy!
There goes my eyeball,
right into my highball.
There goes my left leg,
it rolled under the beer keg"
Needless to say we had a peculiar childhood :lol:, this is one of the less weird songs he sang.
LQ
Not a bad idea, though.
ol' hoghead
This is what all them mohow's snackin on armadillo road kill enroute to el norte are bringing with em.....
"eewww" ping
All of the third world countries shipping their people here have the best health care system in the world: The United States of America. Another reason to come here (and to mooch off of us and get all kinds of freebies and then complain about us).
No it wouldn't. The 14th states:
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
This does not apply to foreign nationals, whether in this country legally or illegally. As Jacob Howard, coauthor of the citizenship clause of the 14th amendment stated in 1866:
"Every Person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons."
The citizenship clause was thus clearly meant to prevent emancipated slaves from being denied citizenship, not to provide an end run around our immigration policies.
What percentage of the United States immigrant population enters the country illegally?
I have no idea. Why?
Ok,I get to do it this thread!
Just spreading diseases that Americans are too lazy to spread!!
"Leprosy is not easily transmitted. Only about 5% of people who live in the same household as someone with leprosy contract the disease. And it takes a long time to develop -- usually 4-8 years. I suspect this increase in U.S. leprosy cases is largely confined to certain immigrant groups from countries where it is endemic (most of whom already had it when they got here, but just weren't symptomatic yet), and is at least partly due to increased diagnosis (read: more free medical care to illegal immigrants). Also, it's now completely curable. So don't panic!"
Agreed. This article is sensationalist and misleading. I'm more concerned about the piece of baked armadillo I ate as a kid (my dad's curiosity got the best of him) than an epidemic caused by immigrants. Anyway, Hansen's desease is easily curable now, though if untreated for a long time can lead to ghastly results.
LOL. Yes, we've lost the initiative.
I think the point is that if leprosy is coming back, so are a lot of other goodies we have kept supressed.
That probably is the point, but it's poorly made because the author would rather rely on overblowing the risks from an easily treatable, low-threat disease sure to evoke panic and emotion (the horrific biblical scourge of leprosy) than to cite real evidence supporting his claim. (I might suspect that his real claim is that immigration is bad, based on the shabbiness of this article.)
I just thought you might have an idea of the figures. I found the estimate somewhere else.
Though I don't care much for the tone or specifics of this article, something like TB is more compelling as a problem, and I don't discount it. TB screening should be part of the immigration process, in my opinion.
Why don't they just send the lepers to the leper colony in Hawaii?
And I was in a good mood today. GWB and the GOP should both go jump off a bridge for refusing to take care of this mess. They are not only refusing to fix this disaster, but are making excuses for it and making it worse.
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