TB
> > Dan Tsang <dtsang@lib.uci.edu> wrote:
> > Cal state fullerton journalism prof. Jeff Brody, who penned the obit in
> > the OC Register, has sent me a more complete bio. His piece in the
> > paper was truncated. See below...
> >
> > On the TB controversy, in many Asians, TB is benign.... Also, this gives
> > the fuller and more correct history of the threats against Do from
> > rightwing Viet kieu.
> >
> >
> > dan
>On Fri, 18 Aug 2006, Elise DeVido wrote:
>
> > Hi Dan:
> > What an inspiration to us all, to read about Yen Do's life.
> >
> > About "TB is benign in many Asians..." I think you mean (as the
> article pointed out) that many people in the world (in Taiwan too) get
> the BCG vaccine in infancy and thus thereafter test postive with a TST.
> Only further tests like Xrays could show one is actually ill with TB.
> >
> > Thanks for forwarding this piece!
> > Best
> > Elise DeVido
> > (Natl Taiwan Normal University)
> >
At 09:05 AM 8/19/2006 -0700, you wrote:
>Yes, thanx Elise for clarifying about the TB. That must be why many do
>have a benign form of TB. The conventional wisdom was the crowded living
>conditions in some urban area but that would have been just speculation.
>
>dan
From: David Marr <dgm405@coombs.anu.edu.au>
Date: Aug 21, 2006 4:36 PM
Subject: [Vsg] TB
I don't know about now, but in the 1960s many Vietnamese south of the 17th
parallel had not been vaccinated for TB yet routinely showed up positive
when given the skin test. When an x-ray machine was available to check the
lungs of such individuals (which certainly was not often), healed lesions
were usually observed. Physicians told me that normally meant exposure to
a family member with active TB but no symptoms experienced. Whether those
lesions made you more susceptible to TB later I don't know, but lesions in
themselves were not sufficient cause to deny entry visas to the US.
David Marr
From: Hoang t. Dieu-Hien <dieuhien@u.washington.edu>
Date: Aug 21, 2006 11:24 PM
Subject: Re: [Vsg] TB
I would like to make further clarification.
As David Marr stated people who were exposed to TB would test positive on TB skin tests (called PPD in the U.S.) and have chest X-ray showing healed lesions. Somewhere in the mid to late 1960s and on, school children in the South received BCG vaccine routinely. Those vaccinated would have positive TB skin tests for life and clear chest X-Ray, meaning no exposure to and no active or latent TB.
However, when Vietnamese refugees arrived in the U.S. in the late 1970s and early 1980s, before the resurgence of TB in the U.S. amidst the AIDS epidemic, public health officials in some locations required those refugees with positive PPD, without ever having a confirming chest X-ray, to take TB medications. This caused considerable anxiety and anguish among the refugees who were asked to take the medications due to the implication that they had TB. Tuberculosis carried with it, and still does among some Vietnamese, a stigma akin to HIV infection today. In war time South Vietnam, tuberculosis killed and was very much feared.
Dieu-Hien
From: Elise DeVido <aldi_tw@yahoo.com>
Date: Aug 22, 2006 12:19 AM
Subject: Re: [Vsg] TB
Thanks for the discussion...
But just a reminder: TB kills now and is very much feared now worldwide! I know of two (otherwise healthy) middle-aged friends in Taiwan who died of TB, despite receiving the best medical treatment.
Peace and health
Elise