A recent report from Kaiser Health News raises serious concerns about the spread of “medieval diseases” that are resurging in some parts of the US.
“Infectious diseases — some that ravaged populations in the Middle Ages — are resurging in California and around the country, and are hitting homeless populations especially hard,” the report explains.
Los Angeles recently experienced an outbreak of typhus — a disease spread by infected fleas on rats and other animals — in downtown streets. Officials briefly closed part of City Hall after reporting that rodents had invaded the building.
People in Washington state have been infected with Shigella bacteria, which is spread through feces and causes the diarrheal disease shigellosis, as well as Bartonella quintana, which spreads through body lice and causes trench fever.
Hepatitis A, also spread primarily through feces, infected more than 1,000 people in Southern California in the past two years. The disease also has erupted in New Mexico, Ohio and Kentucky, primarily among people who are homeless or use drugs. (source)
These diseases will eventually spread to the public.
While the outbreaks are occurring primarily among the homeless, public health officials warn that these diseases can easily spread outside of that population.
Terms like “disaster” and “public health crisis” are being used to describe the outbreaks.
In his State of the State speech in February, California Governor Gavin Newsom warned, “Our homeless crisis is increasingly becoming a public health crisis,” citing outbreaks of hepatitis A in San Diego County, syphilis in Sonoma County, and typhus in Los Angeles County.
“Typhus,” he said. “A medieval disease. In California. In 2019.”
The diseases sometimes are referred to as “medieval” because people in that era lived in squalid conditions without clean water or sewage treatment, said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine and public health at UCLA.
The growing homeless population means more outbreaks are likely.
The report goes on to explain that the homeless population has grown in the past two years, and infectious diseases spread quickly and widely among those who are living outside or in shelters.
“About 553,000 people were homeless at the end of 2018, and nearly one-quarter of homeless people live in California,” the report says.
Sidewalks contaminated with human feces, crowded living conditions, weakened immune systems and limited access to health care are all factors contributing to the proliferation of these medieval diseases.
People living on the streets or in homeless shelters are vulnerable to such outbreaks because their weakened immune systems are worsened by stress, malnutrition. and sleep deprivation. Many also have mental illness and substance abuse disorders, which can make it harder for them to stay healthy or get health care. (source)
Dr. Glenn Lopez, a physician with St. John’s Well Child & Family Center, who treats homeless patients in Los Angeles County, described what conditions are like for people living on the streets.
“The hygiene situation is just horrendous. It becomes just like a Third World environment where their human feces contaminate the areas where they are eating and sleeping,” he said.
Don’t be fooled into thinking you are safe from these diseases.
Those infectious diseases are not limited to homeless populations, Lopez warned. “Even someone who believes they are protected from these infections are not.”
At least one Los Angeles city staffer said she contracted typhus in City Hall last fall. And San Diego County officials warned in 2017 that diners at a well-known restaurant were at risk of hepatitis A.
There were 167 cases of typhus from Jan. 1, 2018, through Feb. 1 of this year, up from 125 in 2013 and 13 in 2008, according to the California Public Health Department. (source)
Typhus is a bacterial infection that can cause a high fever, stomach pain, and chills. It usually can be treated with antibiotics. Outbreaks are more common in overcrowded and trash-filled areas that attract rats. Clusters of the flea-borne disease were reported in downtown Los Angeles and Compton last fall. Health officials said they also have occurred in Pasadena, likely due to people feeding stray cats that are carrying fleas.
In February, the county announced another outbreak in downtown Los Angeles that infected nine people, six of whom were homeless. After city workers said they saw rodent droppings in City Hall, Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson briefly shut down his office to rip up the rugs, and he also called for an investigation and more cleaning. (source)
There were 948 cases of hepatitis A in 2017 and 178 in 2018 and 2019, the state public health department said. That outbreak killed 21 people.
Hepatitis A is caused by a virus and is usually transmitted when people come in contact with feces of infected people. Most people eventually recover on their own, but the disease can be very serious for those with preexisting liver conditions.
Pneumonia and tuberculosis also occur among homeless populations, but are more often seen in shelters.
Infectious disease outbreaks are a public health disaster.
Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, the health officer for Seattle and King County, Washington, said the infections around the country are not surprising. The lack of attention to housing and health care for the homeless and the lack of bathrooms and places to wash hands are contributing to the problem, he explained.
“It’s a public health disaster,” he said. He has seen shigellosis, trench fever, and skin infections among homeless populations in his region.
“It really is unconscionable,” said Bobby Watts, CEO of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, a policy and advocacy organization. “These are all preventable diseases.”
These diseases will become a widespread problem if the SHTF.
If outbreaks like these are beginning to spread among the population now, can you imagine what things will be like if the SHTF?
If you think it can’t happen here, you’d be mistaken.
Just take a look at what happened in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria hit. Selco has outlined – in tragic detail – what life was like after SHTF after the Balkan War of the 90s.
In the article Venezuela Faces the Return of Forgotten Diseases, Jose explained that tuberculosis, diptheria, ehrlichiosis (a tropical variation of Lyme disease), and leishmaniasis are spreading quickly and are hard to treat due to the lack of medication and proper nutrition.
As Lizzie Bennett explained in Disease: 10 Conditions That Will Become Far More Common After A Collapse, “Many diseases are opportunists, they will surface at a time the conditions are right for them to flourish and most often this is at a time when humans really could do with concentrating on other stuff.” She goes on to outline ten diseases (typhoid is one of them) “that will make their presence felt after a major, long term, disaster be it war, societal collapse or in some cases even an economic downturn.”
For more on avoiding infection with contagious disease now and after SHTF, please see 5 Simple Pieces of LIFESAVING Medical Knowledge and The Grim Reality of Survival Medicine in Austere Conditions.
About the Author
Dagny Taggart is the pseudonym of an experienced journalist who needs to maintain anonymity to keep her job in the public eye. Dagny is non-partisan and aims to expose the half-truths, misrepresentations, and blatant lies of the MSM.
They can keep their diseases along with their politics and deviancy in their sanctuary states.
Of course, the article does not point to the obvious relationship between many of these diseases coming from invaders or the lib drug culture. That would require actual journalistic insight and reporting. Instead, the article is just another example of journalists telling us how the world is coming to an end. I am certain if there was a way for the author to blame this all on President Trump, they would have led with that and it would have been picked up by the Lying Fake News MSM.
Ummm…how are you under the impression that we blame everything on President Trump? You must be new here. We dislike most politicians equally.
If there is an “obvious relationship” between these diseases coming from “invaders or the lib drug culture”, science has yet to share that.
I have an extensive education in health sciences and have been researching health-related issues for nearly 10 years. All of my work is based on evidence.
I never said the world was coming to an end, and I never mentioned Trump once in the article.
Legalize drugs regulate purity supply clean needles solve the problem
This is not thanks to a small percentage of people who choose not to vaccinate their children. This is due to the explosion of illegal aliens into California and this country. They have already had several quarantines on the border.
When is the last time you saw a tuberculosis or typhus vaccination? This has absolutely nothing to do with vaccines.
Third world invaders bring in third world diseases. That’s one of the reasons you see outbreaks of odd third world diseases popping up in communities all across America as the “health screened” immigrants are officially dispersed all around the country.
You are exactly right. Louisville, KY went through a huge Hep A outbreak. More than once the source was determined to be a worker in a restaurant. Those workers were either determined to be illegals or resettled migrants. Population was told to take hepatitis vaccine in order to protect themselves. I quit eating outside my home.
California should be removed from the Union. They are tyrants who thrive off of creating poverty. There is no excuse for the mess there, non what so ever. You people need to elect public servants, not self serving filthy dogs. Try some republicans for a change! You don’t see shit piles in states run by them.
I see that our government has taken the ignore it and it will go away approach
All of this medieval diseases are a result of unchecked illegal immigration. Lawful immigration requires you to be vaccinated and healthy so lawful immigrants are not the problem. This flooding the country with illegal aliens started under the Obama administration and is pushed by the US Chamber of Congress, it is supported by Multi National Corporations and George Soros. Any politician who accepts money from either stand in support of open borders.
One poster below says they are not political here and hate all politicians equally. These medieval diseases are brought to you by Politicians who do not care about America or it’s citizens, they depend upon people like you (non Political) to keep our borders open, to keep the medieval diseases alive and well in the US.
So for all you non political people out there you need to wake up. If Trump loses this border battle you can kiss your non political ass goodbye. Medieval diseases will become the norm as people continue to come to the US unchecked. We spend 160 billion a year on illegal alien assistance, housing, foodstamps,medicaid, we even pay for the attorney that represents them in court.
Sooner or later the illegals will reach a number that puts pressure on the job market, when that happens wage growth will come to a halt and might even go backwards. Disney laid off Americans during the Obama Administration only to hire the foreign people they were training, they trained their own replacements. The reason?? They worked for less money.
Go ahead and prep but don’t say you got this handled because you don’t. Think about your children, grandchildren living in Honduras, Guatemala, Venezuela because that is what America will become if you remain non Political. I prep, but if the Government wants it there going to take it, by being non political you allow them to take it. These asswipe’s are counting on Non Political’s to make their dreams come true.
If Trump doesn’t win in 2020, and I’m pretty sure he will, wave goodbye to America. Maybe even say hello to a civil war. People are different now than they were back in WWII.
Sad but true.
It’s taken such a long time for you to decide. Just delete the comment then if you don’t like it. I don’t care.
Thank you for posting my comment. I’m amazed.
That’s what you get when you allow unvetted illegal immigrants into our country. Thank Pelosi and Shumer and all the other baby killers. Do yoiu really think they care about anything other than money, votes and power? REALLY???
Aside from the usual political bickering and fingerpointing, let’s concentrate on the things we can do to try to prevent getting sick, shall we people?
For starters, keeping a small bottle of hand sanitizer on you and USING it is a small but effective step towards maintaining personal health. If you can’t get to wash your hands properly, this will help until you do, especially if you have to use public transport.
Wear a mask if you are in a public place during flu season. If nothing else, people will think YOU are sick and avoid you. Try not to eat out. People working in restaurants are not as good as you might hope about washing produce, their hands or cleaning the restrooms. Don’t assume that the boss or the Health Department is watching over their shoulders every minute.
Changing into “house only” shoes when you get home might be a good idea if you live in an area where there are a problem with waste disposal.
Don’t share cigarettes, drinks, food like an ice cream cone, needles, makeup or toothbrushes. Don’t get stoned and pick up strange trim – or if you do, use protection. If you need surgery, have blood drawn ahead of time to use during the operation.
Treat pets promptly for fleas and ticks. Use mosquito repellent. If you have an infestation of any sort, call an exterminator. If you rent, and your landlord balks, call the board of health.
These are simple, commonsense ways to avoid illness. There are more, but I’ve made my point. Cover your own butt – never assume that anyone else is going to look out for you and NEVER assume the government will be able to ensure your safety without you doing your part.
Miss Kitty, yours is the only comment that made any sense. I agree completely. Funny how some people can take any subject & turn it into a political, name-calling rant. Anyone here old enough to remember the “free clinics” of late 1960s early 1970s? All you had to do was walk in the door. That was back when practitioners still had a conscience & insurance companies didn’t own the world.
Exactly. All these awful things are a result of poor sanitation and squalid conditions. The city of Eureka CA tried to fix their homeless peeps by providing shelter, food, etc. But they didn’t want to be fixed. They wanted to be left alone to run their own lives how they saw fit, living by their wits even though they don’t have any wits left. Homelessness is a weird problem. Illegal immigration definitely feeds into the vicious cycle — it gets worse with each new president, no matter what is promised. It’s like the Trojan Horse that just keeps on giving. BTW, most of CA is decent. It’s the big cities that bully the rest of us. Who can say where it will end? Not eating out is just a good idea, especially if you notice you’re getting the stink eye from any worker. Just get out of that place. I just remember a scene from a very old miniseries of someone spitting in someone else’s drink. Given the present level of bitterness in the atmosphere, it seems best to eat where you know you’re the safest — at home.
So please tell us how to disinfect our yards or dirt areas when a bunch of the immigrants come around looking for odd jobs or camp out on your property.
California’s Socialist politicians have driven out the working middle class, and have made the state a magnet for bums and illegals, and all other worthless people. You cannot help people who refuse to help themselves, no matter how much money you spend. Disease among bums is part of the Darwinian law of the elimination of the unfit and the careless. The majority of homeless people could get jobs if they wanted to. Add to the homeless the huge number of illegals that flood into our country and you have a guarantee of disaster. Poetic justice in the end.
Medieval? Somebody needs to tell Governor Gavins that Typhus was very common late into the 19th century.
There is no vaccine for Shigella. Nor for Bartonella quintana. The typhus vaccine has never been routinely used in the US. Hepatitis A occurs due to fecal-oral spread. Clean water is what is needed to prevent it. There is a vaccine for Hepatitis A but those of us with good plumbing have no need for it. Most Americans do not receive it.
The author failed to make clear that the issue here is squalor. They are social diseases. They need social solutions.
California has huge homeless communities, with people living closely together, in less than 100 square feet apiece. Some have pets, which also serve to provide some protection.
Vaccines will not stop these diseases. It is typical that the purveyors of false narratives, in this case implying that vaccines are the solution, use pseudonyms to protect themselves.