Wealthy Los Angeles grapples with outbreak of typhus among its poorest

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian


Concern focuses on homeless population as 64 cases reported a year after hepatitis A infected hundreds

Carla Green in Los Angeles
@carlaflou
Thu 18 Oct 2018 14.07 EDT

Los Angeles officials have pledged hundreds of thousands of dollars and created a dedicated taskforce to fight an outbreak of typhus, as a city of glittering wealth grapples with a disease linked to intense poverty.

“We’re deploying every available resource to help control and stop this outbreak,” said Alex Comisar, press secretary for Los Angeles’s mayor, Eric Garcetti.

Many of those resources have focused on the city’s large homeless population, considered most at risk for contracting the flea-borne illness. This same time last year, California’s homeless population was threatened by an outbreak of hepatitis A, another disease associated with impoverishment and poor sanitation, which killed 21 people and infected hundreds.

There have been 64 cases of typhus reported across Los Angeles county so far this year, more than the 53 cases recorded this time last year, and on track to surpass the 67 cases diagnosed last year total. A department of public health spokesperson said the outbreak began with 11 cases of typhus in downtown Los Angeles, six of which were diagnosed in people who were homeless. Unlike hepatitis A, the form of typhus typically found in California is not usually fatal and can’t be passed from person to person.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/18/los-angeles-typhus-outbreak-homeless

[nini]

1. 'a city of glittering wealth'

LOL

It's amazing that is what people think L.A. is all about. Most of us are regular people of all economic statuses.

That being said.. the homeless problem is huge here. There are a couple of encampments with a mile of where I live. I can't imagine the lack of sanitation they live in. I'm glad to see Garcetti is on this.

[Raine]

2. It's not just Los Angeles it's every city

and suburb in California filled with poverty, homelessness and now comes disease.

[duforsure]

3. With what trump and the gop are doing

To our air and water and health precautions with cuts or by ignoring , its not a surprise. Add to that the lead levels they're ignoring and pesticides they're allowing that they know will damage our children, and they aren't protecting us , they're killing us and our children by doing this. The care about profits more than our children. Vote!

[ck4829]

4. Ah, the greatest healthcare system in the world strikes again