I talked with a person this week who was ranting about how this is the worst time in history.
It's not even close!
When I was growing up far worse things were happening and far more people were suffering and dying. I had two friends in my neighborhood who lived in iron lungs.
As I've said before in this blog, my family was profoundly affected by tuberculosis. My mother and two of her brothers had it. They all died young. But prior to that they were separated from their families for years. This was not uncommon.
And then a cure for TB was found. And, for decades, in our country, we've believed that TB was a disease of the past.
But Longwood attorney and global volunteer, Susan Keller, wrote an interesting article for the Orlando Sentinel this morning telling us that tuberculosis is currently the Number One infectious disease in the world. It's one of the biggest causes of poverty around the globe and one of the five biggest causes of death for women ages 15 to 44. (My mother was 34 when she died in 1947.)
Since most of the cases of TB are now in other parts of the world, why should we care? TB does not respect borders. 62 million people visited us here in Central Florida in 2014. Most of them were concentrated in the "Attractions" area. And, in addition to spending buckets of money, most of them were breathing and coughing while they were here.
Here's the good news: We know how to treat TB. We know how to cure TB. We know how to prevent TB. We just have to decide whether or not we want to.
Susan Keller would like us to encourage our country to continue to be a part of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This fall world leaders will come together to, again, pledge our support of this plan.
Think how the world would be changed if all three of these diseases were wiped off of our beautiful blue globe.
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