Bleh. Sixty-nine countries. Is the US, i wonder, one of them? Think of all the soldiers and CIA and whatnot trampling all over the Iraq/Afghanistan even Iran area. If we don't have any cases yet, we soon will.
*and my SO is in contact with soldiers every day.....*
I am going to take this frankly terrifying article as an excuse to say this :FINISH YOUR GOD DAMNED ANTIBIOTICS. If you are prescribed antibiotics and you start a course of them, you MUST finish them unless recommended otherwise (such as an unexpected adverse reaction) by a medical professional, not your mom or dad or spouse (unless they happen to be medical professionals, and then carry on
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This. Sometimes anti-biotic soap can actually make things worse for people to prone to infection. Like oral antibiotics (which kill "good" bacteria in the stomach and intestine that helps to digest food), strong anti-biotic soaps also kill the "good" bacteria on the skin that help fight infection.
I have immune system problems as well as super-delicated skin (prone to being damaged and wounded) and was warned against using alcohol or anti-biotic soaps to clean my skin or wounds. Regular soap and water are what I was told to use (and to put iodine on the wound).
Well, it's mutated so it probably won't though it may provide some immunity I would think though I admit I'm not entirely sure. However, BCG has fallen out of favor in some countries (due to low TB burdens for example like almost no one in the US outside of some health care professionals, people who have lived outside the US, or have HIV have had it) and it's effectiveness is in question. It's not as effective as other vaccines out there (it's variable from 0-80%) and the protection wears off around age 20, it's a vaccine to protect children, not adults. Sort of like a pertussis or tetanus where one needs boosters but I don't think there are any TB boosters out there.
tl:dr vaccines won't save us, though I wish they would!
Do you know if anyone is working on a new vaccine, given the highly resistant strains that now exist and all? (I don't expect anyone in Pharma to be doing it, but maybe in academia/non-profits. . .)
Some people are working on it (like the NIH and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) and last I saw they had some success with mice and are starting a clinical trial, I think. But I don't know how it's going. I would suspect that they are just doing regular TB (because it is still the most prevelant because thankfully M/X/TDR-TB is still a minority). I couldn't tell you for certain though.
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*and my SO is in contact with soldiers every day.....*
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I have immune system problems as well as super-delicated skin (prone to being damaged and wounded) and was warned against using alcohol or anti-biotic soaps to clean my skin or wounds. Regular soap and water are what I was told to use (and to put iodine on the wound).
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tl:dr vaccines won't save us, though I wish they would!
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