TUBERCULOSIS

You do not hear much about tuberculosis in the United States. That condition could change for the worse. Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death from an infectious disease in the world. One million five hundred thousand people die from it every year world wide. Tuberculosis has been a major killer for thousands of years. Hippocrates wrote about it. Egyptian mummies have shown signs of it. Before antibiotics there was no effective way to cure it. Today there are several strains of tuberculosis that are antibiotic and drug resistant. No effective improvements have occurred in addressing tuberculosis in thirty years. Perhaps we in the United States should be more serious about this disease.

Firm control of immigration from the south as well as from anywhere in the world needs to be an effective screen. Public health personnel should be screaming about our loose southern boarder. Illegal immigrants are not screened at all for TB or any other infectious disease. Because these illegal immigrants have to live an underground existence to some degree the chances of them spreading TB are greater. Further, TB spreads to people in close contact on a regular basis to the TB sufferer. Unlike a disease like Covid 19 or the flu, TB is a chronic disease that can continue to infect  other people for years. 

Sincerely,

Dr. Mike Spearman