Tick-borne parasite infecting U.S. blood supply, CDC says
- Thread starter Teegate
- Start date
Nothing new.This has been know for quite sometime now.
Of the 162 cases of Babesia infection caused by blood transfusions between 1979 and 2009, nearly 80 percent occurred between 2000 and 2009. Government dragging its feet. Whats new
Of the 162 cases of Babesia infection caused by blood transfusions between 1979 and 2009, nearly 80 percent occurred between 2000 and 2009. Government dragging its feet. Whats new
Even with the increase from 2000-2009, 14 cases per year for the entire US is hardly an epidemic...
It not the Epidemic,
Babesiosis can cause fever, chills, sweats, headaches, body aches and other flu-like symptoms. These typically occur within a week or two. The disease can be life-threatening in people whose immune system has been weakened by cancer, AIDS or another medical condition, as well as those who have no spleen or a spleen that works abnormally, who have liver or kidney disease, and elderly people.
There is no vaccine to prevent the disease, though antibiotics and other medicines can be used to treat it.
Babesiosis can cause fever, chills, sweats, headaches, body aches and other flu-like symptoms. These typically occur within a week or two. The disease can be life-threatening in people whose immune system has been weakened by cancer, AIDS or another medical condition, as well as those who have no spleen or a spleen that works abnormally, who have liver or kidney disease, and elderly people.
There is no vaccine to prevent the disease, though antibiotics and other medicines can be used to treat it.
I didn't mean to minimize the impact of the disesase. We've seen a couple threads here from people who have suffered, and it sounds terrible. I was really responding to your comment that the "government is dragging its feet". I have no idea, maybe they are. However I could understand them devoting fewer resources to this than other infectuous diseases that affect thousands (or tens or hundreds of thousands) of people. And can "the government" really be all things to all people?
Research on problems such as this is best left to private research companies, not the government. Those companies have the expertise, the government doesn't. Unfortunately, there has to be some hope of profitability in doing the research. With just 162 cases in close to 40 years, it's just not in those cards, or using tax payer dollars.