Researchers suggested Tuesday that all foreign-born people living in the United States be tested for latent tuberculosis infections if the United States is to be successful in eliminating the disease.
Currently, recommendations call for those foreign-born residents who have been in the United States for five years or less be targeted for tuberculin skin testing and treatment of latent TB infection.
Paradoxically, the need to expand testing comes at a time when budgets for tuberculosis prevention are being cut, David Cohn, professor of infectious diseases at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, told United Press International.
Dr. Kevin Cain…and colleagues were investigating why the number of annual cases reported in U.S.-born persons declined by 93 percent from 1993 to 2004, while foreign-born cases increased by 5 percent. Overall, the rate of tuberculosis cases in the United States is 4.9 per 100,000 people.
“Twenty-five percent of all reported tuberculosis cases in the United States are among foreign-born persons who have lived in the United States for more than five years,” said Cain. “There is no policy to test foreign-born persons for latent tuberculosis infection before entering the United States, or to test them after they have lived here for more than five years.
As Professor Cohn notes in the article, “there are many who fall through the cracks, including, of course, long-term undocumented aliens.” And nothing, of course, is proposed by our public health services to deal with that fact.
One of requirements for my green card in USA was medical exam that specifically included tuberculosis tests (skin, x-ray, blood tests). Now, I do not think that this practice have been changed since mid-1990’s. In other words that article avoids to use as much as they could: undocumented foreign born people in USA need to be tested…
TB requires a long series of antibiotic and follow up for eradication. Many patients will drop out of site before the full course of treatment. This is a perfect scenario for antibiotic resistant strains.
I am amazed in this day and age that there are ANY “cureable” diseases. A profit-driven medical industry does not want diseases cured. Curing a disease means turning off a money spigot. Treating symptoms is where the profits are.
In 2004 there were 14,517 cases of tuberculosis reported in the United States; about 2.6 percent occurred in native-born Americans, while about 22 percent occurred in foreign-born individuals, Cohn said.
So 22% plus 2.6% = 24.6% Who are the other 75.4%?
Now is this the same group of people you want to test that many who post in this blog think we should let come and go across our borders unhindered?