U.S. TB Infections Drop to Record Low: CDC

By  Julie Steenhuysen

United States - U.S. cases of tuberculosis fell 6.4 percent in 2011 to an all-time low, but missed a national target of eliminating the disease as cases among foreign-born individuals persisted, health officials said on Thursday.

Unless factors change significantly, the United States will not be able to eliminate TB - meaning fewer than one case per one million people - until the year 2100, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Addressing the increasing difference between TB rates in foreign-born and U.S.-born persons is critical for TB elimination," the CDC said in its weekly report on death and disease, which was released ahead of World TB Day on March 24.

Overall, U.S. TB rates last year fell to 10,521 reported cases, or 3.4 cases per 100,000 people, the lowest level since national reporting began in 1953, the CDC said.

Despite these gains, the airborne infection is proving difficult to tame in some populations, especially among foreign-born individuals, blacks, Asians and people infected with HIV.

TB rates were 12 times higher among people born outside the United States. Of these infected individuals, more than half of the cases originated in just five countries: Mexico, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, and China, the CDC said.

Compared with whites, TB rates were seven times higher for Hispanics, eight times higher for blacks and 25 times higher for Asians last year.

Four states - California, Texas, New York and Florida - account for nearly half of all TB cases in the United States, according to the report.

TB is caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. It can be cured with antibiotics but they must be taken daily for months to be effective. Because people do not always take the drugs as directed, multiple drug-resistant strains have emerged.

Cases of TB that are resistant to at least two common treatments, known as multidrug-resistant TB, accounted for 109 of all U.S. TB cases in 2010, the most recent year for which there are data. Foreign-born individuals accounted for 90 of these cases.

There were 4 cases of extensively drug-resistant TB - an infection that resists the most highly effective drugs - reported in the United States in 2010, all among foreign-born people.

The World Health Organization estimates that a third of the world's population is infected with the bacteria that cause TB. Last year, TB made nearly 9 million people sick and killed some 1.45 million people, according to WHO.

Odd Stories: World's Shortest Man Discovered in Nepal

Katmandu - The record for the title of the shortest person in the world has been broken by a 72-year-old man in the country of Nepal.

At 22-inches, Chandra Bahadu Dangi has broken the record set by 23-and-a-half inch high Junrey Balawing of the Philippines. The third-shortest man is another Nepalese man named Khagendra Thapa Magar, who stands at just under 26-and-a-half inches. The shortest woman in the world is aspiring actress Jyoti Amge, who stands at just under 25 inches.

Because he never seen a doctor and never left the village, nobody either inside or outside the village was aware of his height until a forest cutter met him. Officials from the Guinness Book of World Records are set to arrive in the country on February 26th to measure him.

Dangi has never been married and lives with his eldest brother and his family in the village of Rhimkholi. All of his brothers are of average height. They aren't sure when exactly he stopped growing.

He said about the event "I am very happy to be in Katmandu for the first time in my life. I am here so I can take the Guinness title."

Indiana Law Would Criminalize “Inappropriate” Singing of National Anthem By David Wallechinsky and Noel Brinkerhoff

Claiming there’s a right and wrong way to do it, a lawmaker in Indiana has introduced legislation that bans the inappropriate singing of the national anthem.

 

Republican Senator Vaneta Becker’s bill would set specific “performance standards” for “The Star-Spangled Banner” at events sponsored by public schools and state universities, or by private schools receiving state or local scholarship funds or vouchers.

 

The bill’s language does not offer a definition of an acceptable version of the song. Instead, Becker is leaving that up to the State Department of Education and the Commission for Higher Education.

 

If the measure becomes law, those not abiding by the appropriate standards will be fined $25.

 

Indiana citizens have been particularly sensitive to the singing of the “The Star-Spangled Banner” since May 2001 when Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler, performing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, changed the last line from “the home of the brave” to “the home of the Indianapolis 500.”

 

Massachusetts law forbids the use of “The Star-Spangled Banner” as dance music, as part of a medley or as an exit march…punishable by a fine of up to $100.

 

In October 2010 the House of Representatives of the Philippines passed a law that included jail time for improper singing of the Filipino national anthem, but the bill died in the Senate.

Commentary: The Seven Billionth Child

While everyone is excited about the birth of the seven billionth child.  News organizations such as the Associated Press are even doing symbolic stories about it and how it is affecting certain countries.

In the story the Associated Press covered, under the fluff about the celebrations going on around the world, is a story about how the country of the Philippines is looking at birth control for a solution to its population issues.  Although the Catholic church is still against it, the country's government is supporting a "program that includes artificial birth control" in the words of the AP.

Citizens of the Philippines, such as Danica Camacho who is the mother of the country's "symbolic seven-billion baby", are taking it upon themselves to try to cut down on the world's population.  Aware of the Vatican's stance she decided to start using birth control anyway.  ""The number of homeless children I see on the streets keeps multiplying.  When I see them, I'm bothered because I eat and maybe they don't", she said.

I'm sure even those who love children more than anything else in the world are aware it is time this planet gets this problem under control.  If we fail to do so the world's resources will be so scarce any child born will face an extremely difficult life.

It's time for us to willingly decrease the number of children we have through things like birth control and other family planning methods.