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The Los Angeles typhus epidemic

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Batman, Feb 10, 2019.

  1. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Been following this story for a while. I don't live in California, but it's fascinating to me on a number of levels, mostly for the insane reality that the second largest city in the country is facing the potential of a medieval plague in the 21st century.

    Los Angeles is dealing with a growing epidemic (142 cases last year, more than twice the normal number) of typhus, a flea borne illness that is basically a couple steps removed from bubonic plague and transmitted the same way. It gets to the fleas from rats, who are all over the downtown area because of the garbage and filth associated with the city's large homeless population. At least one person working at city hall has contracted typhus.
    City leaders, meanwhile, are saying it's just a standard rat problem and urging people not to leave food and plants out. They're ripping out carpets and trying to fumigate buildings, and some of them still don't seem to have a grasp on what has the potential to be a major public health crisis.


    So this is a pretty big deal, right? Lots of people in Los Angeles potentially taking infected fleas to other parts of California and beyond? This seems like it has the possibility of becoming a major plague.

    https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-city-hall-rat-problem-20190208-story.html

    ‘Absolutely terrifying’: Deputy city attorney says she contracted typhus at City Hall

    LISTING OF DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH PRESS RELEASES
     
  2. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    A stern reminder that homelessness is a public health issue, not just a moral or political or economic failure.

    Short term, California probably needs a statewide mobilization and intervention.

    Long term, California needs to organize and fund a better approach to homelessness.

    The good news, I suppose, is that typhus is relatively easy to treat with antibiotics.
     
  3. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    We moved to Indonesia for my dad’s job in 1980, and typhus was one of the diseases we had to get immunized for. Not sure if that means I’m still immune to it.
     
  4. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

  5. Twirling Time

    Twirling Time Well-Known Member

    A form of typhus can also be carried by chiggers, which means the Dirrty South is fucked.
     
    Inky_Wretch likes this.
  6. Vombatus

    Vombatus Well-Known Member

    Is typhus worse than lupus?
     
  7. Spartan Squad

    Spartan Squad Well-Known Member

    Wouldn't know. It's never lupus.
     
    Smash Williams and Vombatus like this.
  8. TigerVols

    TigerVols Well-Known Member

    I get a morbid kick out of the fact that for some odd reason, residents of states where childhood obesity and adult diabetes and other lifestyle-caused diseases are running rampant find themselves fascinated by issues that impact about .000001 percent of California's population.
     
  9. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    It's like seeing the rich, famous celebrity getting railed in a sex tape by a tatted-up meth head in a Motel 6 while on a cocaine bender.
    I know my state has its problems. Nobody pretends otherwise. Hell, we're reminded of it at every opportunity.
    But Californians love to brag about how awesome and perfect the place is, and how everybody wants to move there. It's to the point that they lecture the rest of the country to follow their lead. Meanwhile, in one of the state's biggest cities, kids are playing hopscotch over piles of poop. In another, there are thousands of homeless people on the streets spreading a disease most often found in third world hell holes. These aren't backwater towns in the middle of nowhere. These are major American cities that are supposed to be showcases for both California and the country. Instead of cleaning them up, local politicians are making excuses and willfully ignoring these major problems to ban plastic straws and tsk-tsk people who refer to others using the wrong pronouns.
    The obliviousness and even hypocrisy is what fascinates me.
     
    HanSenSE and Dog8Cats like this.
  10. tapintoamerica

    tapintoamerica Well-Known Member

    Are you reveling in human misery?
     
  11. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    Never ever, not once, have I heard anything like this. And I lived there for 18 years.

    Skid Row in downtown L.A. has typhus. If you think the problem is they just don't want to "clean it up," I don't know what to tell you.
     
  12. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    No more than you do any time you read a story on Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia or any other Southern state.
     
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