The Dead Horse thread

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This thread is for all those topics that have come to an end, but haven't..
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NBC News
JoNel Aleccia
8/25/13

Measles outbreak tied to Texas megachurch sickens 21

Sixteen people -- nine children and seven adults
-- ranging in age from 4 months to 44 years had come down
with the highly contagious virus in Tarrant County, Texas,
as of Monday.
Another five cases are part of the outbreak in nearby Denton County.

All of the cases are linked to the Eagle Mountain International Church in Newark, Texas,
where a visitor who’d traveled to Indonesia became infected with measles
– and then returned to the U.S., spreading it to the largely unvaccinated church community,
said Russell Jones, the Texas state epidemiologist.
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In the wake of the measles outbreak, however, Pearsons has urged followers to get vaccinated
and the church has held several vaccination clinics, according to its website.
Health officials said the church administration has been very cooperative in the outbreak investigation.

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NY Times
8/27/13

An Army spokesman said the Army did not provide hormone therapy or sex-reassignment therapy.
A spokesman at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where Private Manning will be incarcerated,
was uncertain whether she would be permitted to undergo hormone therapy, even if she paid for the treatment herself.

However...

Prisoners have a constitutional right to care for their serious medical needs.
In the case of individuals with gender dysphoria, treatment often includes hormone therapy,
and failure to provide it can raise the risk of serious depression, self-mutilation attempts or even suicide.

Several federal courts of appeal have said that a state’s deliberate failure
to provide individualized assessments of whether a transgender prisoner needs
access to specialized medical treatment, like hormone therapy or surgery,
violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

As part of a lawsuit settlement in 2011, the federal Bureau of Prisons began
making medically necessary hormone therapy available to all transgender inmates,
including those who had not received a diagnosis and begun the therapy before incarceration.
Although transgender people continue to be barred from service in the military,
the Department of Veterans Affairs offers a range of services for transgender veterans, including hormone therapy.

Of course, the Manning case presents other issues as well,
starting with whether the all-male prison at Fort Leavenworth
is the right institution for Private Manning.
Transgender inmates are especially vulnerable to sexual assaults,
and special care must be taken to ensure their safety
with accommodations like private showering.

The nature of Private Manning’s offense could make for added safety worries.
Prodded by lawsuits and strong Justice Department regulations issued last year
to implement the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, civilian jails and prisons
around the country are developing ways to address the particular needs of transgender inmates.
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