MEAN STREETS: Disturbing Report Shows Homeless Death Rate UP 33% in Los Angeles

Originally published at: MEAN STREETS: Disturbing Report Shows Homeless Death Rate UP 33% in Los Angeles | Sean Hannity

A “sobering” new report on the state of Los Angeles’ homeless crisis is raising serious new concerns over safety and security in the nation’s second largest city; showing a 33% increase in the transient population’s death rate.

“The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a report released Tuesday that between 2013 and 2018 the number of homeless deaths doubled from 536 to 1,047. The overall death rate, which accounts for increases in the total homeless population in the area, was up by over a third in that same period,” reports Fox News.

Drug and alcohol overdose was the largest contributor to the overall increase in the homeless death rate, accounting for 27 percent of the deaths between 2016 and 2018. The overdose death rate for homeless individuals was 26 times higher than among the general population,” adds Fox.

“This report is tragic, and reflects a true state of emergency on the streets of our community,” said Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, one of the co-authors of the motion. “It is unconscionable and inhumane for society to continue to turn a blind eye to this plight.”

Doctors fear the recent rat-infestation sweeping Los Angeles may pose a greater health risk than just Typhus; saying a new “plague” of Leprosy -a disease prominent during the Dark Ages- could re-emerge in homeless campsites.

“Diseases are reemerging in some parts of America, including Los Angeles County, that we haven’t commonly seen since the Middle Ages. One of those is typhus,” reports The Hill. “I also believe that homeless areas are at risk for the reemergence of another deadly ancient disease — leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease. Leprosy involves a mycobacteria (tuberculosis is another mycobacteria) that is very difficult to transmit and very easy to treat with a cocktail of three antibiotics.”

“And it seems only a matter of time before leprosy could take hold among the homeless population in an area such as Los Angeles County, with close to 60,000 homeless people and 75 percent of those lacking even temporary shelter or adequate hygiene and medical treatment. All of those factors make a perfect cauldron for a contagious disease that is transmitted by nasal droplets and respiratory secretions with close repeated contact,” adds the website.

Read the full report at Fox News.