TB cases linked to Castro bars

[Newsjock]

Source: Bay Area Reporter

San Francisco health officials have traced several cases of tuberculosis to patrons of Castro gay bars, with one of the people infected a bartender in the area. The discovery has prompted them to ask 140 employees of businesses in the gay neighborhood who may have been exposed to an active case of TB to get screened for the potentially deadly disease.

... The screenings were prompted after health officials last month were able to link the same strain of TB found since 2007 to five men in their early 20s suspected to be gay or bisexual who frequent Castro bars. One of the cases was found last summer in an employee at a Castro bar, which they declined to name due to privacy issues.

According to a fact sheet handed out to bar owners, obtained by the Bay Area Reporter, the health department is concerned that the "cluster of highly infectious TB cases" may be "working its way through the SF gay community."

... Four of the five cases were in openly gay men in their 20s, with three HIV infected. All but one of the individuals were U.S. born and would not be considered at risk for TB by "usual standards," stated the fact sheet.


Read more: http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=3621

[nc4bo]

1. I'm sorry but wtf does being gay have to do with contracting a highly infectious disease like TB?

I know I'm not adding anything informative to this post, just bitching about possible fearmongering out loud.

ETA: Is this a pro-gay website? It looks to be so. I guess I sorta knee jerk reacted to the story. I just hope that the evil media doesn't turn this into something it shouldn't.

[dbackjon]

4. I don't read it that way - more a descriptive case

If the TB cases could be traced to a number of church camps, linked by five counselors, I would expect it to be labeled as such.

[nc4bo]

7. I gotcha. I 2nd thought-ed it and edited my post. nt

[Newsjock]

6. The BAR

... is the Bay Area's oldest and most generally well-respected gay newspaper. But yes, I see a real risk that TV news could have a field day with this.

[AtheistCrusader]

8. Nah, this happened at my High School a long time ago.

It's just localized to the people exposed, who would be most patrons, in this case, since it was a bartender. Could just as easily have happened at say, a bank. Just happened to have occurred in that particular business.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Newsjock]

10. From TFA

TB is an airborne disease and is easily spread when a person who is infected coughs, sneezes, or spits. Due to the poor ventilation in many bars, employees are more susceptible to TB exposure, said Kawamura.

"You don't get it from sex or sharing food or beer bottles. It is spread by someone who has it in their lungs who either sneezes or coughs," explained Kawamura. "Bars are notorious sites of transmission. There is a higher risk of breathing in contaminated air."

[queerart]

11. Everyone Knows They Are Craven Animals........

Queers really are dirty animals..... Allot of them are so promiscuous........



Here are some sites for you, not that you will bother of course ........



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(Couldn't help but include this site first... as it made me laugh, and was so keeping in the spirit.... )


http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/parasite-makes-men-dumb-women-sexy/2006/12/26/1166895290973.html


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In the age of promiscuity, women have more sexual partners than men:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1093011/Women-far-promiscuous-men-says-shock-new-study.html


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Prostate cancer linked to promiscuity:

http://menshealth.about.com/od/prostatehealth/a/promiscuity_can.htm


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New Zealand women are world's most promiscuous: survey:

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1364916.php/New_Zealand_women_are_worlds_most_promiscuous_survey


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In Most Species, Faithfulness Is a Fantasy:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/science/18angi.html?ex=1363492800&en=d92908b0142d3f8e&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss


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PROMISCUITY RANKINGS OF MAJOR COUNTRIES*


1 United Kingdom

2 Germany

3 Netherlands

4 Czech Republic

5 Australia

6 USA

7 France

8 Turkey

9 Mexico

10 Canada

11 Italy

12 Poland

13 Spain

14 Greece

15 Portugal



http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/relationships/article5257166.ece


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Who Are the World's Most Promiscuous Women?


http://news.softpedia.com/news/Which-Are-the-Wold-039-s-Most-Promiscuous-Women-80450.shtml



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SCIENTISTS claim to have discovered the reason that men’s testicles are the size that they are: it’s all to do with the infidelity of our female ancestors.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article504245.ece


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New survey tells how much sex we’re having
29 percent of men, 9 percent of women say they’ve had 15 or more partners


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19374216/

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promiscuity



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Percent for Promiscuity in (presumed) heterosexual children

Statistics: According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, 36.9 percent of 14-year-olds have had sex - more than one out of three. Among 12th graders, 66.4 percent have had sex.

http://www.aspeneducation.com/factsheetpromiscuity.html


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Here is another page for you to look over at the CDC

http://www.cdc.gov/search.do?q=promiscuity&btnG.x=0&btnG.y=0&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&ud=1&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8

[LeftyMom]

12. TB is spread by breathing. Unless there's some special promiscuous way of breathing,

who one is fucking, how, or where has nothing to do with the spread of TB.

[depakid]

16. Take a crowded, poorly ventilated bar- add in immunocompromised indivduals and carriers

and you've got a TB hotspot.

Pretty basic stuff.

[LeftyMom]

17. That's a function of crowding, not promiscuity.

:shrug:

[depakid]

18. Not just crowding- but higher chances of exposure to the pathogen

and a higher number of susceptible individuals among the population frequenting the bar.

Certain jails and prisons have similar characteristics-

[Name removed]

22. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Maven]

20. .

[du_grad]

24. That is correct.

I am a medical microbiologist working in a clinical laboratory and have for 35 years. TB is spread by being in close proximity to others. If you have the index case (the original infected person) socializing in a crowded bar and coughing, it can easily be spread to other people. This could have just as easily happened in a crowded airplane (and indeed this latter scenario HAS happened).

The problem with TB and HIV positive people is that it can spread like wildfire in this type of population, and also spread to the general population of SF. When people are exposed to the TB organism (which is Mycobacterium tuberculosis) they don't necessarily contract active tuberculosis. Your body reacts to the organism by trying to wall it off in the lung. Most people's immune systems are able to do this. However, if you are HIV positive or have active AIDS you are at great danger of contracting active TB and spreading it to other people you know, or don't know, just by coughing, singing, spitting, sneezing, etc. The organism itself protects itself with a very thick cell wall and thus it easily dodges many antibiotics and disinfectants.

This has everything to do with dangers to public health in general, and public health officials must act to try to find the source of this infection. Tuberculosis can easily spread in any population. The fact that these people just happened to be socializing in a certain bar in SF is just a coincidence. Screening consists of having a PPD skin test performed. Public health departments will do this for free. If they are PPD positive, that only means that they have been exposed to the disease. Further testing is needed to determine if they have active TB. The usual next step is a chest X-ray. Minimally, the people who screen positive will have to take INH (an anti-TB antibiotic -there are only a few) daily for six months (minimum). The drug itself is extremely inexpensive and can be obtained through your local health department. If their chest xrays indicate infection, a two or three drug protocol will have to be instituted. If the patient is HIV positive that complicates matters, and I do not know what the treatment is then.

I became PPD positive in a lab I worked for ten years ago. I had to undergo prophylactic INH therapy and have a chest xray performed so I know what I'm talking about. I never contracted tuberculosis and my xray was negative. You cannot drink alcohol with INH and you have to have liver enzymes drawn about a month into the therapy to make sure your liver is okay. A coworker converted years ago and her chest xray was questionable. She was immediately put on triple drug therapy and got sick. Her liver enzymes became elevated and they took her off of one of the drugs. This organism is nothing to mess around with. If you do not completely eradicate it from your body you end up with dreaded MDR-TB (multi-drug resistant TB) which has occurred in prisons in Russia and South Africa.

Please remember that, at the end of the 19th century, fully 1/3 of the population between the ages of 15-45 were infected with the TB organism. We do NOT want to return to those good old days. This is why public health departments take TB so seriously. TB can become systemic and infect virtually any part of your body, eventually causing death.

Here's some more information:

http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/ma?f=102211805.html

http://www.cdc.gov/tb/

http://www.cdc.gov/tb/pubs/TB_HIVcoinfection/default.htm

[Jamastiene]

13. So, what you are basically saying is the homos fucked around and spread a disease.

Never mind the fact that TB is not spread that way. :eyes:

[LostinVA]

23. I can't fucking believe it

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[High Plains]

2. Damn Raul and Fidel!!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

5. Ok now ... DAMN YOU TO HELL!!!!!

You got it in aprox. 1 minute before me. :evilgrin:

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

3. DAMN YOU FIDEEEEEEL!!!!!!

Oh that other Castro........ may bad.

[anonymous171]

21. At least the government is paying attention to the gay community.

If only they cared this much back when AIDS was just starting. They could have headed it off.