Category: health issues

Washington Post runs major story on Female Genital Mutilation

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is now a couple of days old, sorry I didn’t get to it sooner.   The Washington Post has a graphic story that fills an entire page of the print edition on the (mostly) Islamic practice of Female Genital Mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Since my time is short this morning, I’ll direct you to Robert Spencer’s discussion of the article at Dhimmiwatch here.

We have written about this barbaric practice because it is creeping into the US with refugees from countries that approve of the mutilation of little girls’ genitals.

Ireland: Burqa-wearing immigrants have health problems

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We have written previously that Ireland is taking refugees from Islamic countries and now comes news that Ireland’s gloomy climate is bad for burqa-wearing Muslim women. (Hat tip: The Religion of Peace)

From the Times:

MUSLIM women who wear the burqa in Ireland are at increased risk of pelvic fractures during childbirth because of vitamin D deficiency due to a lack of sunlight, a consultant warns.

Babies born to women with vitamin D deficiency are also more prone to seizures in their first week of life, according to Dr Miriam Casey, of the Osteoporosis Unit in St James’s hospital in Dublin.

A burqa is an enveloping outer garment worn by some Muslim women. In hot countries, enough sunlight gets through to give them sufficient vitamin D, but this may not happen in countries where there is limited sunshine, such as Ireland and Britain.

[….]
 
 
 

 

Casey said: “As we see a rise in the number of Muslims in Ireland, it’s going to become a massive problem. It’s worse in England whose Muslim community is older. There are already problems in the Rotunda [a maternity hospital in Dublin] and the paediatric hospitals.”

 

Having had some personal experience with the “troubles” that plagued Ireland for centuries between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, I’m wondering  how the Irish are handling the Muslim influx.

Female Genital Mutilation arrives in the West with immigrants

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We’ve written on several other occasions about female genital mutilation but not lately, so when I saw this blog with a lengthy detailed article (including lots of links so readers could delve into the topic further) I decided it was time for a refresher on FGM.

There has been a huge increase in the numbers of women in France seeking plastic surgery. These women are not looking for face lifts, liposuction or breast enhancement – they are looking to have their sexual organs reconstructed after having been circumcized in primarily Islamic countries. Unfortunately, this also indicates that female genital castration is still occurring. One suspects that this surge in genital reconstructive surgery is also found in other western nations with high immigration from Islamic countries.

“In recent years around 2,800 women who immigrated to France from Africa or second generation immigrants, of the age group between 18 and 50, have turned to hospitals and centres in Paris and Nantes funded by national welfare to have their genitals reconstructed, devastated by the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM).”

We have heard that FGM is increasing in the US, but I don’t know if anyone is yet seeking surgery.

Vermont: loads of refugees with loads of mental health issues

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Note to readers:  This article reminded me that I have not kept up our page called “your state,”  and I noticed that lots of  you go there for information.  Sorry!  Posting is so much more fun then blog maintenence!   You will find our search function is pretty good and if you type in the name of your state, you should find anything we have written about where you live.

Anyway, back to Vermont where the folks are compassionate about their (large?)* number of refugees (5000), 50-80% of whom are suffering with some mental health problems.

When refugees arrive on American soil — in steadily increasing numbers, now nearly 5,000 in Vermont — resettlement efforts are centered on basic necessities, finding a home and hopefully a job, functioning in an utterly foreign culture. Talk to them and they tell you they are grateful. They know that they are the lucky ones. And yet. A fresh start and a welcoming community cannot shut off an inner slideshow of suffering, violence, loss and fear. The young man’s story above is both singular and part of the commonality among refugees. They all fled from something.

According to Karen Fondacaro, director of UVM’s Behavior Therapy and Psychotherapy Center, 50 to 80 percent of refugees are estimated to have significant mental health issues, primarily post-traumatic stress disorder, and symptoms related to anxiety and depression. So in July 2007 she stepped into the void, with a team of passionate graduate students, launching Connecting Cultures, a groundbreaking clinical science program with three components: community outreach, direct mental health services, and research that will allow them to formally assess their approach and offer a map for other refugee resettlement communities. To Fondacaro, the psychological and physical, spiritual and cultural are inseparable, fundamental aspects of survival.

They need funding (who doesn’t).

* For numbers of refugees to each state check out this post and follow links to databases.  You will note that Vermont is one of the smaller refugee-receiving states.    Some states have resettled hundreds of thousands of refugees and just imagine if 50-80% are suffering from mental stress.

We have a category called “health issues” (71 posts in it) you might want to check out too.  There are lots of other health related problems resettlement communities must face.

Leprosy on the rise in the US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Reader Ciccio sent us this informative report from Science Daily about Leprosy on the rise in the US immigrant population.  One of the  major problems is that doctors are so unfamiliar with the disease that it often goes untreated.   Apparently how the disease is transmitted is still a mystery.

Because many of the population in the U.S. affected by leprosy are immigrants in poor communities who primarily seek treatment in free clinics or emergency rooms, the NHDP says that many of those physicians are not familiar with the disease to make an accurate diagnosis. Therefore, many physicians mistake the skin lesions of leprosy for a fungus or ringworm and treat it with a topical cream. And, because leprosy is a slow-progressing disease, it can take months, if not longer, before the doctor or the patient realizes that the treatment isn’t working – giving the disease enough time to start destroying the nervous system.

Leprosy is most prevalent in the tropics and third world countries where there are poor living conditions and limited access to medical care. Due to changes in immigrant relocation, leprosy is now being diagnosed throughout the U.S.

“Changes in immigrant relocation” mentioned here is one of the on-going points we make at RRW.  During the Clinton Administration it became the policy of the federal government to spread new refugees to cities and towns large and small throughout the US.  These cities, unfamiliar with immigrants, then struggle to figure out what to do with health issues, schools, housing, etc. causing tensions to build and community coherence to be destroyed.

Oh, here I am, like a broken record,  back to the whole business of change and community destabilization and Alinsky and Obama!

Wait, I just noticed there is a sidebar article at Science Daily whose title looks hopeful.  The rise of TB can cause Leprosy to fade from the scene.   Since TB is also on the rise in the US immigrant population we may soon learn if this is true.   Sit back and watch the battle of the killer diseases.

Check out our previous report on leprosy.