While policymakers and many in the scientific community are worried about measles, a deadlier threat from drug-resistant diseases like tuberculosis lurks on the horizon. Action Alert!
The measles outbreak in California has unleashed a storm of heated debate across the country, including multiple calls for mandatory vaccinations at both the federal and state level. What is the extent of this outbreak that has unleashed such energetic debate, you might ask? A total of 178 cases out of a population of 320 million people.
While we certainly do not want to disregard the seriousness of measles, there are important questions being asked about the efficacy of the vaccine as well as its safety. And good sense seems to dictate that the response should be proportionate to the severity of the threat. With measles getting all the headlines, there is a much more serious problem that is not getting the attention it warrants.
As we’ve reported before, tuberculosis (TB) is one of the world’s most common diseases mainly because it is so highly infectious—it’s spread with a mere cough or sneeze. It’s second only to HIV as the leading infectious killer of adults worldwide.
The World Health Organization estimates that two billion people—that’s one-third of our planet’s population—are infected with the bacteria that cause TB. Ten percent of these carriers will become sick, and if left untreated, half of those will die from the disease.
TB is becoming resistant to multiple drugs, and many health experts fear it may become “virtually untreatable.” One particularly scary strain of TB, known as XDR-TB (XDR stands for “extremely drug resistant”), has no known cure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns that multi-drug resistant TB is one of our “most significant global threats.”
This isn’t just a problem for developing countries, either. Just a few weeks ago, twenty-eight high school students in Kansas were infected with TB. In 2011, the most recent data available, 536 Americans died from TB, and in 2013 there were over 9,500 cases of TB reported.
As we’ve shown before, the overarching problem that produces these superbugs is antibiotic overuse—both by doctors who rely too heavily on antibiotics and by industrial farming operations. Consider these statistics: a Medscape poll found that 95% of healthcare professionals said they prescribe antibiotics when they aren’t sure they’re needed. A whopping 70% of all antibiotics used in the US are used on livestock. There’s even evidence that pesticide and herbicide use contributes to antibiotic resistance.
As of last Friday, the Obama Administration has released a plan intended to address the issue of antibiotic resistance, but it leaves much to be desired. Much of the plan focuses on heightened surveillance, slowing the spread of drug-resistant bacteria, and developing new antibiotic drugs. These measures are akin to putting band-aids on a gushing wound. To really address this threat, what we need is a shift in thinking about how we treat disease.
Fortunately, some health experts are starting to realize the flaw in conventional medicine’s paradigm. Dr. Justin Denholm, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia, put it this way: “The reality is that this one-size-fits-all approach is a major part of what’s led to this drug resistance issue. I think individualized treatment is what we should be aiming for.”
This, of course, is what integrative doctors have been saying all along: the innate effectiveness of drugs diminish over time, and an absolute reliance on drugs is unsustainable.
There are other ways to fight disease. Two studies have now linked vitamin D to the successful prevention and treatment of TB. In the first study, white blood cells converted vitamin D to an active form of the vitamin, which helps make a protein that kills the TB bacterium. In the second study, Indonesian scientists compared vitamin D to a placebo, testing them on seventy patients for nine months. The patients who received 10,000 IU of vitamin D (rather than the 600 IU recommended by conventional medicine) led to an astounding 100% cure rate.
There have also been studies which show that ozone therapy—which increases the amount of oxygen in the body—can be an effective treatment for TB. There are many other integrative strategies for controlling pandemic bugs. We need these to be ready for the next pandemic.
One immediate measure we could take is to support efforts such as the new bill from Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), which would preserve antimicrobial drugs for human use only. That is just a start, but a good start.
Action Alert! Tell Congress to support Rep. Slaughter’s Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, which would reduce the use of antibiotics on livestock and thus take steps towards addressing drug-resistant diseases like TB. Please send your message immediately!
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Treating measles as though its ebola and ignoring the much more serious issue of antibiotic-resistant TB is extremely stupid.
Firstly, I want to know what’s in those vaccines. What are the long term negative effects of each of these many vaccines Big Brother Fascist wants to make mandatory?
Secondly, I want to know who manufactures the vaccines. Guess Who???
Thirdly, which politician received how much money and from which lobby group or pharmaceutical.
Fourthly, which economic sector did the “measles” originate in? The Panama Canal history should be a template for removing the causes of many diseases: improved sanitation; improved environment and nutrition are relevant factors in the fight against diseases of all kinds.
You’re correct about TB btw. It started with a certain American yoga student who brought it back from India in the 80s. It has now mutated and there is no treatment for it. It is a growing concern among the homeless; care workers who interact with them and in hospitals.
The other one to watch is meningitis and also the MSRs.
Of course, that is the financial crooks in our broken systems intention, to distract us at all costs: With plane crashes, murder cases, shoot outs, car chases, celebrities, sports, whatever they have to do to take your mind off the fact that they are planting cancer-causing foods with your taxpayer contributions and then going out of their way to attempt to facilitate your eating of the cancer-food by saying it is safe, by trying to prevent you from finding out it is toxic, and genuinely using propaganda, deception and white/green-washing (and whistleblower intimidation) to prevent you from realizing that you are being poisoned and destroyed by your own efforts, your own contributions to a corrupt society ran by financial crooks that call its taxpayer contributors nothing but “useless eaters”. Corpses to make money off by giving them cancer and working them over in the medical field.
The US is the most atrocious place in existence, even the congo is a better life and an actual nation compared to the monopoly on life and literal slavery that is the US.
I will never join the US, I will never get a job, never pay taxes, never have my own family and I will never have friends nor a life. I’d rather die than ever join the corrupt US it is a nightmare that I wish to wake up from A.S.A.P. It is so bad, I don’t even believe this is a real life because everyone is so stupid, evil, and abusive.
As I understand it this strain of TB came to us from the Mexicans that have come here legally and illegally. And if that is not bad enough it is now considered a violation of one’s civil rights to examine them for communicable diseases.
It’s all very screwed up…back in the day we had the Cancer scare and then boom came out all these money makin’ “cures”….didn’t help the Victim….Then It was the AIDS scare plus the Lyme+Coinfections…but AIDS won the choice because it was an easy way out for Gov’t and it saved the Gov’t for having to answer for the Lyme+ Epidemic. As the Lyme+ Epidemic grew out of control the Gov’t still down played it and used other things like this Measles, Ebola and TB not to mention what else. All “cover up” “look at me” so you don’t see the real problem….
Well, as you know CDC fell on their face and had no choice to admit that close to half a MILLION people WILL become INFECTED EACH YEAR with Lyme+ and don’t forget the instant death Powassan, Bourbon, Heartland Virus! It makes one wonder with almost everyone becoming a Victim to these awful autoimmune Disease(s) how is one going to fight off TB or the Measeles or what have you. How will or when will there be any justice? The IDSA is still holding on to their corrupt Guidelines of tests and treatment that are keeping people suffering and dying! So what’s the deal here, do we just throw in the towel? Give up and say…ok I don’t mind being a Victim so you can make money? What’s the big deal of a Pandemic…when we’ve got an Epidemic that’s been growing beyond criminal for over two decades!!!!???
I didn’t get any further in the above article than where the writer talked about how “infectious” tuberculosis and HIV are. Of course that’s bullshit. If TB were contagious, you’d hear about large numbers of hospital personnel who administer to the ill, dying due to their exposure to their patients with this “highly contagious” disease. And here it is 2015, if you don’t know that the Acquired in A.I.D.S. is from drug use both illegal and legal, then you must be living in a mud hut in a very remote place. AIDS was acquired all right – amyl nitrate, butyl nitrate, AZT, cocaine, lack of sleep, shitty diet, etc. Yeah, those aren’t exactly tenets of a healthy way of life; in fact, keep that crap up long enough and it’ll kill ya.
BTW, so called measles isn’t contagious and there’s no such thing as vaccines. It’s just a concept but it has no bases in reality. So “vaccinating” someone for “measles” would be like taking your car to a horse stable instead of a auto mechanic in order to have it worked on. Estupido. If you believe otherwise, I’ll let you in on a secret you aren’t aware of – you’re brainwashed.
I am sincerely overwhelmed and happy today because my two kids are now free
and safe from MEASLES. My kids have suffered from this contagious disease for
some time, and my doctor said to me that they cannot be cured. But i always
believe in God that one day he will give a cure because i always believe that
the day he created my kids, he never created them with sickness and or virus.
So i keep hoping until i saw someone on the internet who testified of how he
was cured of a deadly virus by a herbal doctor by the name Doctor Uwadia
Amenifo. So i contacted the said doctor, and explained my kids problem to him
of how they have for long suffered MEASLES. He laughed and told me that sure he
can cure them with his herbs, so i tried to believe him, because at first I was
nervous. But after his counseling and advice, we made all necessary arrangement
and he prepared the herbs and sends it to me. behold it was like a magic
because in just few days they responded positively to the treatment, and in no
time they fully recovered and today they are totally cured of MEASLES. Please they are am
now very hail and healthy, immediately
after they were cured, i called Doctor Uwadia Amenifo to inform him of
the good news and he said he told me before that his herbs can cure my kids. i
was very amazed. He also told me he can cure so many disease, and virus. And told me to please help him tell the whole
world of his wonder herbs, and that is what I am doing now. Please if you know
that you, or your children, or any member of your family have any health
challenges, i implore you to contact Doctor Uwadia Amenifo now, and be free from
disease and virus. His contact details is (+2349052015874) and his email is
([email protected]). Please contact him now, thanks for
listening..