There’s no home-ish like Snohomish

Mar 31st, 2008 11:27 AM UTC
By Sammi Fredenburg, ONE member, Seattle, Washington

Snohomish RESULTS and The Snohomish County Health District (a community north of Seattle) held very inspiring event to honor World Tuberculosis Day (TB) at at the Wired & Unplugged Internet Coffeehouse and the region’s ONE members came out to support.

TB is the leading cause of death worldwide among women. More than nine million people are infected and nearly two million lives are lost to TB globally . Over one-third of the population of the earth has been exposed to the bacterium and is according to the World Health Organization, a new case develops every second. Not everyone infected develops the full blown disease, but one in ten will, and without prompt and thorough care, will die from this disease.

Songs were shared and dedicated to loved ones lost. Stories were shared of grandparents, parents, and individuals themselves who were residents of sanatoriums in the past century, one who was an inpatient many years ago at the same Denver facility that treated Andrew Speaker last year, the lawyer who made news for the cross-atlantic flight with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.

In America in the 30’s and 40’s this disease was referred to as “consumption” as it consumes the body from the inside, a dreadful airborne illness. Some of those who shared were mothers of young children, who saw their children once a month thru a window of the building, for months or even years at a time.

Our Snohomish group leader, Teresa Rugg, experienced deep personal loss when her close friend Dr. Claudia Lacson, a close friend from graduate school, lost her life to TB here in America just three and a half years ago. She was married to Romel, who, ironically was a behavioral scientist at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention at the time of Claudia’s death. They also lost their baby Emma, who was born prematurely due to this tragedy. Romel Lacson has started a project called the “TB PhotoVoice” in which cameras are given to people affected by TB and they share their reflections about this preventable and curable disease. The website is www.tbphotovoice.org.

We still have resolutions and bills that are active this year for funding of TB, both domestically and globally here.

Aaron Reardon, the County Executive here in Snohomish County, proclaimed March 24th as the first annual World TB Day.

Thank you, and great job Snohomish RESULTS!

Stay close,

sammi in seattle

TAGS: ONE, Seattle, Tuberculosis, Washington