World Community Grid and Tuberculosis fight

[Abarbarian]

I noticed as I was checking my Boinc Manager that the WCG is now joining in the fight against tuberculosis.

This disease is pretty fearsome and while many folk think it was defeated and got rid of in the UK that is not the case. In fact there had been a steady rise in numbers of folk infected for quite a period of years. Thankfully the numbers infected are falling slightly over the last couple of years. This is due to a concerted effort initiated by the government to stem the rising tide. Just my opinion but the threat of a tuberculosis epedemic must be a serious threat as it takes a lot to make the government take action, even if it has not noticed what has been happening for the last two decades.

http://www.tbalert.org/about-tb/statistics-a-targets/uk-stats-and-targets/

Despite many people believing TB has been eradicated in the UK it never went away. In fact, the UK experienced a two decade long rise in cases from the mid-1980s. It is only in the last four years that the UK has begun to match the global trend for falling rates of TB, with affected individuals dropping from a peak of 8,919 cases in 2011 to around 6,000 cases annually today.

In England in 2015:

• There were 5,758 TB cases
• 39% of cases were in London
• 73% of cases were among non-UK born people

Now the scary stuff, read and shiver,

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...an-disease-that-never-went-away-a6717826.html

“Shock was the reaction of everyone,” explains Garrett, who was diagnosed with Isoniazid resistant pulmonary TB, a single drug resistant strain, in July 2013. She spent two years shuttled in and out of hospitals, as complications from the TB gave her everything from hepatitis to neutropenia, removing all of her white blood cells and nearly killing her.

The good news is,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39376641

Researchers in Oxford and Birmingham say they can isolate different strains of the disease using a process called genome sequencing.

It means patients who may have waited months to get the right drugs can now be diagnosed in just a few days - so they have a greater chance of recovery.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the breakthrough "will save lives".

Cases of TB in the UK have begun falling recently, but England still has one of the highest rates in Europe.

An finally the good old government takes action. Guess they must have been too busy in the last two decades to bother.

https://www.gov.uk/tb-test-visa/overview

You’ll need to have a tuberculosis (TB) test if you’re coming to the UK for more than 6 months and are resident in any of these listed countries.

You’ll be given a chest x-ray to test for TB. If the result of the x-ray isn’t clear you may also be asked to give a sputum sample (phlegm coughed up from your lungs).

If your test shows that you don’t have TB, you’ll be given a certificate which is valid for 6 months from the date of your x-ray. Include this certificate with your UK visa application.

Mind you that does not apply to the estimated one million illegals we have in the UK.

An with that in mind one more fact,

It is estimated that a third of the global population is infected with latent TB — and one in ten of these people will go on to develop the disease.

Annually, over 10 million people develop TB, leading to nearly 2 million deaths — deaths that are avoidable through early diagnosis and treatment.

So would anyone reading the above like to join the PC Review crunching team ? If I lived in a big city I would join instantly or leave to live in the countryside.

Have a thoughtful day folks.

 

[nivrip]

The option to crunch "Help Stop TB" has been there for several months, AB.

You obviously missed it when it began.

 

[bootneck02]

Gorr blimey and I thought that TB had been irradiated, well you live and learn

 

[Abarbarian]

The option to crunch "Help Stop TB" has been there for several months, AB.

You obviously missed it when it began.

I have only been back crunching for a few weeks so yup I did indeed miss the start of it.

 

[Abarbarian]

Gorr blimey and I thought that TB had been irradiated, well you live and learn

If I was living in a crowded community I would be seriously worried as there are emerging strains of TB resistant to many of the antibiotics available. With folk travelling in crowded conditions a full blown epidemic could occur very quickly indeed.

 

[bootneck02]

I can remember as a child we were always being inoculated against all sorts of illness and TB being one of them but that was the late 1940's and the 1950's

 

[Abarbarian]

Everyone at school when I was there in the 60/70's had a TB jab. Left a great big circle on me left arm up near the shoulder. I too thought that the UK had got rid of TB by the end of the 70's.

 

[nivrip]

It never completely went away because, as it became rarer, people assumed it had gone and stopped getting their BCG jab. So, there were more and more people becoming susceptible to it and the numbers also rose because of immigrants coming from countries where it was rife.

Remember the Heaf Test? You had an injection consisting of six pinpricks in a small circle and if they became red over the next couple of weeks it meant that you had already been exposed to TB and had a fair amount of immunity anyway. In that case you didn't need the BCG jab. If your Heaf Test did not produce red marks then you had no immunity and you got the BCG and a fairly unsightly scar for the rest of your life. Still, better than getting TB.

 

[Abarbarian]

@nivrip yup I got one of them scars. It seems that as a country we are going backwards and if May gets her way we will soon have a health service to rival Americas.