What
about them?
He was misdiagnosed; he doesn't have XDR-strain TB.
He only has MDR-TB, which half of Texas has (okay, not
half, but lots of people have it. We're a border state, after all).
He didn't infect anyone else, as it turns out.
But even if he had, people with MDR-TB do not
have to remain in quarantine.
In my county alone, we had 85 cases diagnosed in 2001.
Harris County (where Houston is) had 472 cases diagnosed in 2004.
Toyal number of cases diagnosed in my state in 2004: 1,683. *
You think we can afford to give all those people the treatment that Mr. Speaker's recieving?
I guess we're
all "victims", because they're free to walk around just like everyone else, potentially infecting us all. They are not legally quarantined. Airports do not required TB tests before allowing passangers to fly (although many jobs here in my state- hospitals, schools-
do require a current negative TB-tine test before they are willing to consider an applicant for employment).
TB isn't really all that contagious, and even if you do get it, it's more likely to lie dormant in your body than to become active and do damage to you.
So, as I was saying, good news for Speaker.
He just has regular old TB, like everyone else, not the XDR (extremely drug resistant) mega-version.
*
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