"Fortunately, a new sheriff and a posse of cabinet-level deputies are in town..." Hallelujah!

 

Along with Illegal Immigrants, Infectious Diseases are Crossing America’s Border

By Brian C. Joondeph, M.D. www.americanthinker.com

For the past four years, our national borders have been as porous as a sieve, allowing thousands of illegal aliens to cross into America every day. Few are screened for criminal backgrounds, useful skills, intentions toward America, or infectious diseases.

The criminal toll from invading gang members is significant, but not every border crosser is a thief, rapist, pedophile, or murderer.

However, everyone crossing the border could be a carrier of an infectious disease -- a walking petri dish of bacteria and other microorganisms that may cause far greater problems than the criminal aliens.

 
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I am using the description “illegal alien” instead of the more woke terms of “migrant," “refugee," “visitor," “undocumented,” or “immigrant” as a hat tip President Bill Clinton, who, in his 1995 State of the Union address, stated, “All Americans … are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be occupied by citizens or legal immigrants.”

He was spot on, so I honored him by using his words. I suspect most Democrats and their media stenographers will object to the term “alien” despite it being used by one of their party’s heroes.

Most corporate media portray illegal aliens as pure and innocent as the wind-driven snow, overlooking the significant public health implications.

Fortunately, Fox News has demonstrated the courage to report honestly about the infectious diseases crossing America’s borders (emphasis mine).

Open borders allow deadly narcotics and criminal gangs to invade our country. But there's a silent killer also making its way across the border: tuberculosis.

America's woke public health authorities are more concerned with equity -- redistributing health resources among racial groups -- than with keeping a disease the U.S. once nearly eradicated from becoming a threat again.

Reported cases of TB shot up 34% from 2020 to 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and continue to rise. More than three quarters of the cases are foreign-born people who picked up the disease in their home countries or traveling through countries with high TB rates. The TB incidence rate is 60 times higher in Haiti than in the U.S.

This article highlights New York City as the leading destination for illegal aliens, where the incidence of TB is 2.5 times higher than the national average. Additionally, 89 percent of TB patients in NYC are foreign-born.

The Southern Medical Association states, “Illegal immigration may expose Americans to diseases that have been virtually eradicated but are highly contagious, as in the case of TB.” ProPublica reviewed ICE detention centers and found staff often break strict rules for testing contagious diseases.

According to the CDC, symptoms of TB include a persistent cough, weakness, fatigue, weight loss, and night sweats. Most everyone crossing the Mexican desert, hiding from authorities, and having limited food and water for weeks on end will have these symptoms. Who gets screened? Everyone or no one? The latter is likely the case based on the sheer volume of immigrants crossing during the Biden administration.

Because they are ignorant of good hygiene measures, children are great transmitters of infectious diseases. Just ask any parent with children in daycare or elementary school.

Once across the U.S. border, immigrant children are sent to New York City, California, Denver, and other cities and states. What a perfect way to disseminate an infectious disease, especially since the children will again be living in close quarters in makeshift detention centers, coughing and sneezing on each other.

So far, I have only been discussing standard TB, which is treatable with a variety of medications. What about “multi-drug-resistant TB” or, even worse, “extensively drug-resistant TB”? Both, according to the CDC, are significantly more challenging to treat.

The global prevalence of active or latent TB is 25 percent. The CDC reports, “The TB rate among non–U.S.-born persons was 15 times the rate among U.S.-born persons.” Furthermore, Latin American slums are “a breeding ground for disease,” with TB being just one example.

TB is just one of many diseases that can cross the border into the US. Other infectious diseases, such as scabies, MRSA staph infections, hepatitis, measles, and chicken pox, can also be introduced. Researchers at Boston Medical Center found that “Immigrants have ongoing links with populations in their countries of origin that may provide a channel through which infectious diseases potentially can be introduced to new areas.”

Scientific American warns of tropical diseases that are “endemic in warmer, wetter, and poorer areas of the world, often closer to the equator,” such as schistosomiasis, Chagas disease, dengue, and Chikungunya, making their way to the U.S. as “immigration may become a greater disease pipeline.”

Polio has been eradicated in much of the world but remains endemic in three countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria. Additionally, polio has reemerged in Venezuela, as reported by CNN. Currently, 770,000 Venezuelan migrants are living in the U.S.

Standard legal immigration into the U.S. requires a medical examination, which includes a review of medical history, a physical examination, a chest X-ray, and blood tests for syphilis. Blood testing and chest X-rays are not required for children and teenagers. What about illegal immigration? It's like closing and locking your home windows while leaving the front door wide open.

Remember the scene from The Godfather Part II where young Vito Corleone arrived at Ellis Island with suspected smallpox? He was placed in quarantine until he was deemed healthy enough to enter New York City. Under previous policies, Vito would have been sent to various U.S. cities and enrolled in overcrowded public schools, coughing and spreading tuberculosis or smallpox to his entire classroom and their families.

Fortunately, a new sheriff and a posse of cabinet-level deputies are in town, many of whom understand infectious diseases and the necessity of protecting Americans from needless illness and death. While Tren de Aragua and criminal gang members make the news, don’t overlook the silent microscopic killers out there, which are just as dangerous, if not more so, to American citizens.