It was all over the news yesterday, Measles, once thought virtually eradicated in the US is back.
I guess Measles will soon join TB as a disease on the rise in the US thanks to our out of control immigration policy. Is “foreign travel” code for the verboten word—“immigration?”
Just looking around for more news on this latest outbreak, I see a medical doctor who writes a health myth website has something to say about the feds/vaccines and immigration. Check it out here.
I’m wondering if the threat of Measles (and other contagious diseases) increasing in the US is what is really behind the push by the State Department and CDC to get the refugees vaccinated before leaving their third world country, see our report on that new project here ten days ago.
We have 220 previous posts in our ‘health issues’ category, click here for more information on health problems related to refugees and immigrants generally.
One of the first things a “welcoming” community in America becomes aware of is the cost of refugee health care at a county health department.
We first became aware of how quickly “pockets of resistance” grow locally when a health department is overloaded with refugee vaccination needs and medical treatment costs for such diseases as TB and HIV/AIDS. Here is one of our earliest posts on the problem in Ft. Wayne, Indiana (2007!).
Now we see that the US State Department and the CDC are going to try to get a greater number of refugees vaccinated abroad before they enter the US. It sounds like a good move for medical reasons. But, it also provides a fig leaf by shifting the cost from one group of taxpayers to the other. While relieving the burden on local and state taxpayers, the costs will be borne by the federal taxpayers, so what is the difference!
Wyoming please note that if they are successful in vaccinating 56% abroad (we resettle on average 70,000 a year), that still leaves 30,800 or so refugees whose vaccination needs will be paid for by state and county taxpayers along with many other of their medical needs! Wyoming Governor Matt Mead thinks the refugee program is free to Wyoming and that the federal government has a money tree!
The refugees have agreed to participate in a vaccination project that will introduce multiple vaccines overseas, depending on age, before they arrive to the US. The project is a partnership between CDC’s Division of Global Migration and the US Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM). CDC and PRM are co-funding this project for approved refugee applicants in the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP).The goal of the project is to provide cost-effective public health interventions, improve refugee health, and limit the number of vaccinations refugees will need after they arrive in the US. In addition to Kenya, the vaccination project is being implemented by IOM with USRAP in Ethiopia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Nepal.
[….]
This project has been implemented in five countries and will provide vaccinations overseas to 56 percent of US-bound refugees each year, saving state and local health departments from the cost and time to provide those vaccines after the refugees reach their new homes in the US.
And thereby eliminating an important driver of community resistance to refugee placement.
The other day we reportedthat refugees were being screened more seriously abroad and treated before setting foot on US soil (or that is what we are told anyway).
States with the highest rates of TB in the US. A few years old but still useful. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6111a2.htm
Here is yet another article on tuberculosis—Hispanics and Asians have the highest rates of TB in America.
The article goes on to say how much this is going to cost us (the taxpayers!) going forward.
Though the rate of tuberculosis (TB) in the United States is dropping, among certain racial and ethnic groups that is not the case. According to recent data, immigrants and those who travel to other countries frequently have the highest TB occurrence.
This means Hispanics, Asians, African Americans, and non-Hispanic whites born outside of the United States carry the largest TB burden in the country.
The issues stems from high rates of tuberculosis around the globe, with the highest incidence reports coming from Eastern Europe and Central Asia. According to the World Health Organization, many of these cases–approximately 450,000–are the drug-resistant form of TB that has developed from improper medication usage and medical protocols.
Not only do we have ‘asylum seekers’ from Mexico, but the largest group of OTMs are Chinese and Indians. Are they being tested the minute they come across the border? I sure hope we are protecting our border guards!
In the United States, foreign-born individuals had a 13 times greater TB incidence than US-born persons and accounted for 64.6 percent of TB cases in 2013. Of these, more than half originated from one of five countries: Mexico (20 percent), The Philippines (12.6 percent), India (8 percent), Vietnam (7.4 percent), and China (6.1 percent).
Almost all of the drug-resistant TB in the US is among the foreign born!
The rate of tuberculosis among immigrant populations varies slightly from the country of origin, however. Among Asians in the U.S. who are foreign-born, there is a 95 percent rate of TB infection, compared to 75 percent of Hispanics, 40 percent of African Americans, and 23 percent of non-Hispanic whites born outside the United States. Foreign-born persons also accounted for 88.4 percent of the resistant TB cases reported in 2012.
Then this struck me as very funny—minority populations will have to be concerned with the cost of treatment going forward! What the heck! It is the US taxpayer that will have to bear the cost of treatment!
The latest data, presented through several Centers for Disease Control (CDC) studies, suggests there is a major dilemma minority populations in the U.S. will soon have to face; cost of treatment.
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Marks suggests TB treatment on average can cost around $17,000; however, drug-resistant TB is another matter, costing approximately $134,000 (rising to $430,000 for extensively resistant TB ). Adding productivity losses to treatment costs brought the estimated per case cost for treating drug-resistant TB to $554,000 per case.
See our ‘health issues’ category with 206 previous posts on health issues involving refugees and immigrants.
Here is yet one more story on the high rate of suicide in the Bhutanese refugee population in the US. This time from New Hampshire via WBUR (Boston’s NPR station). Hat tip ‘pungentpeppers.’
This New Hampshire woman’s father hanged himself on Thanksgiving day. He was 73.
We only noted a link to the New Hampshire suicides in a post in January where we learned some refugees remaining in the camps were upset at the UN for splitting up families. You might want to revisit that post because it gives some background as to how we have resettled 70,000 Bhutanese since 2007. The number in the WBUR story is wrong.
The interview (read about the New Hampshire case) mentions the disappointment some refugees have when the US does not meet their expectations and with the Bhutanese it is pointed out that their culture does not have the same taboos about suicide as some other ethnic groups, or most Americans.
So, as the numbers grow, there is some speculation that “suicide contagion” could set in.
The numbers trouble the Centers for Disease Control, which began investigating the deaths a few years ago. By early 2012, it had 16 cases to look at from a three-year period. The CDC calculated a suicide rate higher than the national and global average, and it hasn’t changed since then.
SHARMILA SHETTY: The Bhutanese and I think in general just that part of the world, the perspective on suicide is very different from I think a lot of other populations and ethnicities.
LESSARD (interviewer): Dr. Sharmila Shetty was a lead investigator on the CDC report. She says the Hindu and Buddhist cultures don’t have strict taboos against suicide as, say, Muslim or Western cultures do. But beyond that, Shetty says the causes can be myriad and frustratingly unknowable.
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SHETTY: There is this phenomenon called suicide contagion.
LESSARD: Shetty explains that if you know someone who ends his or her life, or you hear about it, you are more likely to do it yourself. That’s why she says it’s best to address the problem proactively. Following the CDC’s initial report, the national Office of Refugee Resettlement put a suicide hotline number on its front webpage.
Sounds good, but I wonder how many refugees call Washington if they are thinking about suicide? Would you?
A Tennessee reader sent me the 2012 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the incidence of Tuberculosis in the US.
It is interesting to note that although the number of cases has dropped slightly from 2011, we still had 9,445 cases in the US and 63% of them are among the foreign-born population. (It sure is a good thing we have Obamacare to take care of the expensive meds for all these people!—right?)
Also of interest is that the states which have the highest number of refugees—California, Texas, New York, and Florida—also have the most TB cases (although the largest number of cases are from Mexico! not from the top-sending refugee countries).
In 31 states, ≥ 50% of TB cases occurred among foreign-born persons (Table 34).
In 8 states, ≥ 70% of TB cases occurred among foreign-born persons (Table 34).
In 3 states, ≥ 75% of TB cases occurred among foreign-born persons (Table 34).
In 10 states, ≥ 75% of TB cases occurred among foreign-born persons (Table 34).
Scroll to the bottom of Table 34 and note that Wyoming, which takes no refugees! and is likely the least diverse state in the country, has the fewest cases. BTW, Vermont which has here-to-fore been the least diverse state (and still may be) won’t be for long because the refugee contractors are busy resettling refugees there.
Also from the summary:
In 18 states (Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington), ≥ 70% of TB cases occurred among foreign-born persons
When you visit Table 6, note that Mexico is the top sending country for TB to America. And, of course the Mexicans are not arriving as refugees but as illegal aliens.
Does anyone know if when they do those questionable studiesof how much immigrants contribute to the local economy whether they factor in the cost of treating difficult diseases?
And, when refugees and migrants move around the US, does anyone track them to be sure they stay on their TB meds? Maybe it’s in the full report, here (200 plus pages), but I didn’t read the whole thing.
Update: Superbugs could erase a century of medical advances, here.
