The Black Death walks the land of the free!

[Moiraine]

Another thing I read a while ago about the bubonic plague is that basically all of us alive now are descendants of people who most probably caught the plague and survived or didn't catch it at all while it was around - that may give us some kind of genetic protection.

[DragonMage]

Originally posted by Attalus: LOL, that's why they call them "rare diseases." Ms. Dragonmage, ma'am, you wouldn't know from Beri-beri and tetanus in Gaw-jah, wood-ya? CDC says six cases of both, last year.

Actually [img]tongue.gif[/img] I WOULD know tetanus and West Nile, meningitis (sp?) types and rabies. Those are the only ones I've had opportunity to inform myself about here.

Unfortunately, I knew a woman who had gotten tetanus and not received a shot for it, so suffered miserably from lock-jaw and her only possible relief, according to her doctor, was to have her jaw broken and rewired. I don't know if she ever did it.

And, of course, rabies is something anyone in the country *should* be educated about.

Plus, I do believe there've been some cases of several types of meningitis here. Seems it was mostly amongst college students. That one's kind of scary. I had an ex-sister-in-law who got viral meningitis and she had a rough time of it even with treatment.

Lastly, the West Nile virus is the other *rare* disease that's in the news here lately. But I don't truly *freak out* over such things. IMO, there's probably quite a few of us in GA already who've been bitten by the little buggers and has it either floating around in our systems or has fought it off already.

I know that these even *rare* diseases mostly only do the worst damage to those who 1. are too stubborn to go to a doctor no matter how sick they are (Frank Oz? or was it Jim Henson?) 2. cannot afford medical attention or 3. live somewhere where medical help is not readily available. And the last two make it even less likely that most of these are fatal. It's usually #1 that kills people.

To make a long story short (too late! [img]tongue.gif[/img] ), I wouldn't really *not* move or visit further south. We've got all kinds of *nasties* running around everywhere.

P.S. - Just so's y'all will know...I don't talk like that. [img]tongue.gif[/img] Also, I do try my best to keep up with the CDC reports when I have the time. It's fascinating reading.

[ 11-08-2002, 07:10 AM: Message edited by: DragonMage ]

The CDC tracks all kinds of useful information about us human type beings [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Attalus]

Strangely enough, Galadria may have had a mild case of West Nile this summer (rash, headache, nausea and vomiting) but was too stubborn to have the test done. She said that it would just scare her and she'd get her name in the paper. She's fine, now, though she was ill for about 10-14 days.