LEPROSY, HEPATITIS AND TUBERCULOSIS RISING FAST IN UNITED STATES

LEPROSY, HEPATITIS AND TUBERCULOSIS RISING FAST IN UNITED STATES

In the past 40 years, the United States registered a total of 900 cases of the feared Biblical disease--leprosy. Virtually unknown to Americans in the last century, leprosy exceeded 7,000 new cases brought in on the backs of newcomers since 2001. Most of the people infected in America are illegal alien migrants from leprosy hot spots in Brazil, the Caribbean and India.

“And those are the ones we know about," Dr. William Levis, attending physician at Bellevue Hospital's Hansen's Disease Clinic. "There are probably many, many more."

Now known as Hansen's disease, leprosy arrives with immigrants from crowded, poor countries with scant sanitation. However, its new presence in America has caused 11 clinics to sprout up overnight. In the past six years, Levis and his staff have proved that many patients have contracted the disease without leaving the country. A 73 year old man from Queens, New York and another from Westchester County, contracted leprosy without leaving the America. As a result, the disease is now officially endemic to the Northeastern United States for the first time, ever.

Leprosy's symptoms show in bumpy rashes, skin indentations and loss of feeling in hands and feet. They're usually misdiagnosed because the disease was unheard of in the U.S. until recently. One man who immigrated from Guyana, 47, spent years looking for a doctor to cure him from the red and white splotches on his face and body. When he arrived at the clinic, no one had guessed his condition, which resulted in the loss of one toe and some of the other.

Because illegal and legal immigrants are hired into food service, dish washing, cooking, hotels and day care--leprosy finds speedy access across the country.

Another bug riding in the bodies of newcomers to America is tuberculosis. In a recent article in the Mother Jones News, Dr. Kevin Patterson, in “THE PATIENT PREDATOR,” writes, "Tuberculosis is back, and thanks to globalization, immigration and slipshod treatment, it's deadlier than ever. It kills two million people a year."

Dr. Lee Reichman, executive director of New Jersey's Medical Schools National Tuberculosis Center, said, "We sit on the edge of potential catastrophe. Government won't take this problem seriously, doctors don't treat it, and the public thinks TB isn't sexy enough to merit attention. As it spreads, it will get our attention. Unfortunately, the new strains are resistant to all known antibiotics. It'll take at least seven years to develop new drugs."

Even legal immigrants don't get screened under the age of 15. They slip under the radar. However, it's illegal aliens creating the crisis. Strains of TB once only found in Mexico have moved into Border States of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Since three years ago, 16,000 people living in the US developed TB. In 2001, nearly 40 percent of MDR TB cases erupted in New York and California.

To show you how fast TB spreads; one infected illegal alien will infect between 10 to 50 Americans—depending on his or her public contact. If that illegal alien has children, now numbering over 1.1 million illegal alien kids in U.S. schools, your kids are at risk. In the Santa Barbara News Press on April 25, 2004, the lead story titled, “Anatomy of an Outbreak” recorded that one illegal alien spread his TB to 56 other people in the area.

If you stand in line at K-Mart, Krogers, Safeway, Target, Sears, eat at fast food or go to the movies, you are inches away from those carrying the disease. If they sneeze, cough, laugh or touch your food, you and your children are at risk. To date, over 15 million illegal aliens walk around in our communities across America. We know that 16,000 of them carry TB. How many live in your community and won’t go to the hospital for fear of being caught?

TB won't stay put for long. It's found in overcrowded city conditions, but again, immigrants take jobs in the travel industry and fast foods. One illegal in Denver last fall at a fast food restaurant affected over 1000 patrons with Hepatitis A. No telling how many he would have infected if he carried TB or leprosy.

Is anyone talking about it? Yes and no. Dr. Reichman's assistant, Rebecca Stevens calls on patients, but she, too contracted the disease. But most public officials turn a deaf ear toward more 'important' matters such as war and terror since 9/11.

Where does that leave average American citizens? Simple. You are at risk and it's growing daily with 4.1 million newcomers (three million illegally and 1.1 million legally) each year according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

I remember my travels in Asia to leper colonies where the disease 'creeps' over the body until the person is engulfed in puffy indentations. It made my own skin crawl.

Not to be outdone, another disease makes its way across our borders. In South America, Chagas Disease is a T-cruzi parasite that infects 14 million people. It’s called the “Kiss of Death” because it’s spread by the kissing bug and kills 50,000 annually. Desperate South and Central Americans crash our borders while carrying the disease in their blood streams. It attacks the heart and other organs. It can’t be detected. When they give blood in Los Angeles and Miami, they contaminate our blood supplies. Nine deaths are confirmed in 2003. Three deaths came from heart transplant recipients. They not only got a new heart, they suffered death from the parasite in the transfusion.

Can you do anything? Most Americans sit, watch, wait and listen until personally affected. By then, it's too late. As you can see, our Congress does nothing and our president works to open the borders to more illegal alien migration. For those who want to take preemptive action, it's time to call, write your senators that you want our border secured with troops and you want deportation of illegal aliens—slowly, methodically and surely. Call your local TV and radio station and demand attention be paid to this crisis.

Once illegal aliens arrive, along with TB, leprosy, Chagas Disease, hepatitis, head lice and AIDS, it becomes our problem. The current amnesty bill fails to address detection or prevention of diseases in illegal aliens.