California's Unspoken Health Problem: Brain Parasites

An anonymous reader writes "Sunnyvale, California is a town 40 miles outside of San Francisco, in the Bay Area. As in most of California, the weather is mild, and the winters are short, even sometimes warm. On December 20, Sara Alvarez took her youngest child for a walk in the park in town. As daylight faded, Alvarez lost feeling in her right leg, then her left foot. Her body became numb, and she became weak. At 10:15 pm, her husband drove her to a hospital in Redwood City, about 20 minutes away from their town. There, over the course of Christmas, doctors batted around diagnoses: tumor, cancer. Finally, Alvarez received a brain scan that revealed the truth: neurocysticercosis, a calcified tapeworm in her brain (link contains images of brain surgery)."

Comments

Re:Obligatory

[Anonymous Coward]

After RTFA I, for one, DO NOT welcome our new brain parasite overloards

...the trouble with tapeworms occurs when they reproduce. The host expels thousands of the tapeworms' larvae out of their anus, possibly infecting other people.

Cost/Benefit Analysis

[Bob9113]

Budgeting for health care means focusing the available resources on the most cost effective problems first -- the things that affect the most people.

The CDC estimates that there are 1,900 diagnosed cases every year, 386 annual cases in California alone which can cost upwards of $66,000. Often it is paid through Medicare - costing taxpayers thousands.

California Population: 37m

The phrase "upwards of" jumps out at me. Let's be generous and assume the number they quoted is only twice the average.

386 cases at $33,000 = $13m per year

The cost per Californian is under $0.50 per year. Given the weasel phrase, "upwards of", it is probably a lot less than $0.50 per year. You have a one in 100,000 chance of getting it each year in California. If you are a California resident, you are less likely to get hit by lightning, but not by a whole lot.

Health care resources are limited. If we waste them on 1:100,000 shots, people with more common ailments will suffer. That is a bad economics and socially heartless.

Re:This is why we cook our meats

[whoever57]

Antibiotics are given strategically, administered when pigs are sick, susceptible or exposed to illness. It's not just given to them willy-nilly.

Wrong. In the US, farm animals are routinely given low doses of anti-biotics (in their food) just for the purpose of "growth promotion", despite the lack of any of the factors you list.