Celebrity doctor Drew Pinsky said Thursday that the city of Los Angeles is comparable to a Third World country because of its public health problems and lack of sanitation.

“This is unbelievable. I can’t believe I live in a city where — this is not Third World, Laura, this is medieval,” Dr. Pinsky told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on “The Ingraham Angle.”

“Third World countries are insulted if they are accused of being like this. No city on Earth tolerates this. The entire population is at risk,” he said.

Dr. Pinsky’s criticism followed news Thursday that a Los Angeles police detective had been diagnosed with typhoid fever, a rare bacterial infection typically spread through contaminated food or water. At least five other officers who work in the same Central Division station are showing symptoms of the same dangerous illness.

“We have a complete breakdown of the basic needs of civilization in Los Angeles right now,” Dr. Pinsky said. “We have the three prongs of airborne disease, tuberculosis is exploding, [and] rodent-borne. We are one of the only cities in the country that doesn’t have a rodent control program, and sanitation has broken down. We had a typhus outbreak last summer, we will have a typhus outbreak this summer. I’m hearing from experts that Bubonic plague is likely. It’s already here. It will get onto the rat fleas. And then now, finally, we have this oral-fecal route contamination, which is typhoid fever.”

Ms. Ingraham added that part of the problem could be due to the city allowing in thousands of illegal immigrants who have no identification and no health records.

“And we can’t handle our situation such as it is,” Dr. Pinsky added. “There’s a very bizarre thing going on where the government is somehow insisting that housing is the problem, when in fact we have chronic mental illness, we have addiction, we have people who don’t want to leave the streets. They literally won’t take the housing if we give it to them. And that’s the population that’s vulnerable, and it’s going to get so ill this summer. It scares me for their well-being.”

Dr. Pinsky said he wants to go after the bureaucrats responsible for letting the city get so out of hand.

“I want to pierce their shield of qualified immunity so we can go after them for reckless negligence,” he said. “They’re negligent. Disgustingly negligent.”

“This is a health crisis that I have not seen in this country for 100 years,” he added.

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