Ghost of Christmas Past: Victorian Era Diseases are Returning
The “Ghost of Christmas Future” for our country?
While the Christmas seasons is full of traditions that stem from the Victorian era, diseases of this past era are also now returning.
England is reporting a rise in illnesses related to malnutrition:
Cases of malnutrition and other “Victorian” diseases are soaring in England, in what campaigners said was a result of cuts to social services and rising food poverty.
NHS statistics show that 7,366 people were admitted to hospital with a primary or secondary diagnosis of malnutrition between August 2014 and July this year, compared with 4,883 cases in the same period from 2010 to 2011 – a rise of more than 50 per cent in just four years.
Cases of other diseases rife in the Victorian era including scurvy, scarlet fever, cholera and whooping cough have also increased since 2010, although cases of TB, measles, typhoid and rickets have fallen.
While food poverty is one explanation, other factors must include immigration from third world countries and anti-vaccination adherents.
The British press is asserting that bigger government would solve this problem. Not so fast!
One American cafeteria worker doled out some charity along with a school lunch, and ran afoul of rules. In a move that can only be described as Scrooge-like, she was fired for the “theft” of $2 worth of food for a hungry child.
A school lunch lady in Idaho claims she was fired from her job last week after she gave a hungry student a free meal.
Dalene Bowden told KPVI that a 12-year-old girl came up to her and said she didn’t have any money for lunch.
“My heart hurts,” Bowden told KPVI. “I truly loved my job, and I can’t say that I wouldn’t do it again.”
Bowden said her supervisor saw her give the little girl food last Tuesday and reported the incident.
“He said I was on permanent leave until he called me. I should not call them. He will call me. And they never called me. I got the letter,” she explained.
The letter said that Bowden was terminated for “theft.”
Why is any child going without lunch, when the supposed unemployment rate is so low? Perhaps the reported number may not be the actual one?
But school kids aren’t the only Americans suffering from hunger in this country. There is a hidden epidemic of malnutrition among the elderly:
According to reports presented at the Gerontological Society of America’s (GSA) Annual Scientific Meeting in Orlando, Fla., last month, more than a quarter of seniors are hungry or at nutritional risk. Also, researchers found that as many as two-thirds of older hospitalized patients are poorly nourished.
The problem with malnutrition is especially challenging for those 65 or older because it can trigger or worsen chronic diseases. Poor nutrition may increase the chances of infection, delay normal healing and result in longer hospital stays. Not only does poor nutrition affect the health and wellbeing of elders, but it can also create significant financial distress.
Furthermore, most states get low marks for effective disease preparedness.
Less than half the states in the United States score a five or higher on 10 indicators experts say are key to detecting, diagnosing and responding to outbreaks, according to a new report.
The Trust for America’s Health released it’s latest report on the country’s preparedness for an outbreak, finding 28 states and Washington, D.C., are not ready to handle health threats from superbugs, hospital-borne infections, the flu, food-borne illnesses and epidemic diseases such as the Middle East respiratory syndrome.
Considering the current state of our country, especially with Barack Obama at the helm for almost 7 years, England might just be our “Ghost of Christmas” future.
(Featured image from the 1951 version of “A Christmas Carol”).
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Comments
Ever’ time ah sees a Leslie Eastman byline, ah gets me the vapors.
D’ble hache, good to see ya!
Thought mabe you’d been et by the hogs! Marry Christmas!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Henry H.!
Another cause of malnutrition: Theodore Dalrymple has written extensively on the bad eating habits of lower-class white Britons: lots of fast food, no fresh fruits and vegetables.
One cause of malnutrition which crops up now and then among immigrant populations: An over-reliance on white rice. In the nations they come from, the rice is commonly infested with a certain amount of insects, which provide protein and vitamins. But in the West the rice is pure and so a reliance on white rice can lead to illness.
Merry Christmas, Leslie.
Lots of disease from lots of illegals who never had to do medical exams to come into the country. We can solve that. Keep them out. Treat and deport the ones here.
As for our elderly, we can also solve that as a people by being good neighbors and caring for them. They don’t ask much. They won’t ask, in fact. We just have to make and take the time to treat them to little acts of kindness: visit and talk; provide a dish every now and then that’s big enough for them to eat a complete meal for a few days; check on them to ensure all is well; give little inexpensive but necessary gifts, like microwave bowl quilts, to make their lives easier.
As we grow older, we revert to the beginning of our life cycle—retreat from hectic public lives to the home, then to the bedroom, then to the final womb which is the grave.
Depression and not any actual shortage of food is at the root of much of the malnutrition among the elderly. Cooking a meal to eat alone underscores the loneliness many elderly people feel so they simply stop making the effort.
The early stages of dementia cam be another issue. My mother would insist she had plenty of food in the house, but whenever I managed to get a look in her fridge, much of it was green with mold or well past the expiration date. When I began to throw it all out, Mom physically assaulted me for throwing away “perfectly good food”. I had to arrange with another relative so that I could clean out the fridge on the sly while she took Mom out for lunch and shopping.
Were witnessing the fruits of Obamacare and the governments report of no inflaction, thus no raises for seniors Social Security payments. Just because the price of fuel at the pump had dropped doesn’t mean food or healthcare costs or taxes or insurance have stabled or gone down.This current year Seniors got a measly 1.7% bump in their SS payments and this coming year they won’t get any increases. If their property tax goes up 2% or higher, they have to make that up from something, so cutting back on buying more expensive fruits and vegitables is one way to cut costs. Most seniors don’t drive that much so the saving on gas doesn’t amount to very much for them. Yet we know why the government lies about inflation. Its spending much of the SS money to pay those on SS disability since that number has soared during the recession. The Obama regime made it much easier for folks who’s unemployment benefits ran out, to get on the SS Disabled list. Remember all those commercials where lawyers were telling us how easy it was for them to get what you deserved. It was one of Obama’s way of getting more voters on the government dole. For Obamacare to succeed, it needs older folks to die sooner. No SS increases, means less money for food, and eventually weaker underfed seniors.
Gov’t is wonderful, isn’t it? They’ve been telling Americans for decades to substitute veggie oil for animal fats, and to shift the diet to carbs instead of fat. And voila! Obesity, type-II diabetes and heart attacks still plague us. It’s malnutrition, courtesy of PhD’s educated beyond their own intelligence, causing untold suffering and costing trillions of dollars. But it’s always good to blame folks like me who refuse to inject the pus of murdered babies into our kids (rubella, chicken pox, and more). Merry Christmas.
A few years ago pediatricians noted a rise of nutrition related issues among the children of quite well to do parents. It seems that irrational fears of dietary fat and exposure to the sun had was causing some parents to stunt their children’s growth by limiting their calorie intake an depriving them of vitamin D.
On the other end of the socioeconomic scale, Tuberculosis never stopped being a concern among drug addicts and the homeless. That is mostly because such people tend to stop treatment as soon as they feel better, thus setting in motion a more sever relapse because the bacteria remaining in their system are the most resistant strains. At one point in the early 90s I heard that public defenders in Cook County were raising concerns about the quality of the ventilation systems in the rooms in which they met with clients because of TB cases in the population.
“…28 states and Washington, D.C., are not ready to handle health threats from superbugs, hospital-borne infections, the flu, food-borne illnesses and epidemic diseases such as the Middle East respiratory syndrome.”
Why is any government entity considered as The Option for health protection? Why not private concerns?
Government should be keeping disease out of our country. This would include health checking all illegal aliens and “refugees” before entering the country.
Those in government who allow in diseases (and criminals) with their ‘programs’ should be held legally accountable.
First world nations have first world health systems and first world health problems.
Third world nations have third world health systems and third world health problems.
Our situation is obvious to those who will see.