Gatestone has a very informative piece this morning, thanks to reader Cathy for sending it my way.
As you read this story, do NOT forget that refugees entering the US are being permitted entry even if they have TB. We learned just this week that the state of Minnesota was financially strapped as its health system attempts to cope with infectious diseases in its migrant community.
So although this story involves Germany, you, Americans are not immune!
Just like in Germany the reason you don’t hear about the diseases in the refugee flow to America is because authorities are “downplaying the threat in an effort to avoid fueling anti-immigration sentiments.”
And, as I have said repeatedly if Islamic terrorism doesn’t worry you, this should…..
(Emphasis below is mine)
Germany: Infectious Diseases Spreading as Migrants Settle In
A failed asylum seeker from Yemen who was given sanctuary at a church in northern Germany to prevent him from being deported has potentially infected more than 50 German children with a highly contagious strain of tuberculosis.
The man, who was sheltered at a church in Bünsdorf between January and May 2017, was in frequent contact with the children, some as young as three, who were attending a day care center at the facility. He was admitted to a hospital in Rendsburg in June and subsequently diagnosed with tuberculosis — a disease which only recently has reentered the German consciousness.
Local health authorities say that in addition to the children, parents and teachers as well as parishioners are also being tested for the disease, which can develop months or even years after exposure. It remains unclear if the man received the required medical exams when he first arrived in Germany, or if he is one of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who have slipped through the cracks.
The tuberculosis scare has cast a renewed spotlight on the increased risk of infectious diseases in Germany since Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed in around two million migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
[….]
The incidence of Hepatitis B, for example, has increased by 300% during the last three years, according to the RKI. The number of reported cases in Germany was 3,006 in 2016, up from 755 cases in 2014. Most of the cases are said to involve unvaccinated migrants from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The incidence of measles in Germany jumped by more than 450% between 2014 and 2015, while the number of cases of chicken pox, meningitis, mumps, rubella and whooping cough were also up. Migrants also accounted for at least 40% of the new cases of HIV/AIDS identified in Germany since 2015, according to a separate RKI report.
The RKI statistics may be just the tip of the iceberg. The number of reported cases of tuberculosis, for example, was 5,915 in 2016, up from 4,488 cases in 2014, an increase of more than 30% during that period. Some doctors, however, believe that the actual number of cases of tuberculosis is far higher and have accused the RKI of downplaying the threat in an effort to avoid fueling anti-immigration sentiments.
Read it all here.
See my ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive here.
And, don’t miss RRW’s ‘health issues’ category. 333 previous posts here.
I ask repeatedly, but never get an answer: Do volunteers who work with refugees in the US get any sort of training about how to spot infectious diseases in those they are helping and how to protect their own families at home?