Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Parasitic infection plagues states along Mexico border
THE WASHINGTON TIMES ^ | February 8, 2007 | Joyce Howard Price

Posted on 02/08/2007 8:53:15 AM PST by 3AngelaD

Federal researchers say neurocysticercosis, a brain infection caused by a pork tapeworm, is a "growing public health problem in the United States," especially in states bordering Mexico, where the disease is endemic. ..."international travel and immigration are bringing the disorder to areas where it is not endemic," such as this country. "Neurocysticercosis is the primary cause of epilepsy in endemic areas. This brain worm is very serious," Victor C. Tsang, chief of the immunochemistry laboratory in the Parasitic Disease Division of the CDC said... "Oral-fecal contamination is the standard route of transmission," he said of the condition... "Recent data indicate cysticercosis is an important cause of death in California," Mr. Tsang and other authors wrote in a recent report... A separate report in this month's issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases found that nearly 60 percent of the 221 U.S. deaths from cysticercosis between 1990 and 2002 involved California residents. "Most patients [187, or 85 percent] were foreign-born, and 137 [62 percent] had emigrated from Mexico... ..."In Hispanics and Latinos, neurocysticercosis accounts for 13.5 percent of [U.S.] emergency-room visits for seizures," federal and California investigators wrote ... "The growth is mainly due to immigration from endemic developing countries," they reported. ...These eggs are spread through food, water or surfaces contaminated with feces. "So if you have people cooking for you or handling your food who are tapeworm carriers and don't have good personal hygiene, you will be exposed to the eggs of the tapeworm" and become infected... Carriers tend to be people from rural developing countries with poor hygiene, where pigs are allowed to roam freely and eat human feces. Mr. Tsang said the condition is rife in Mexico and other parts of Latin America and Central America and "in a large part of China and Africa."

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: aliens; diseases; fastfood; health; immigrantlist; immigration; mexico; publichealth
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 last
To: 3AngelaD
And now the Bush administration is looking for ways to make it easier for foreigners with AIDS and HIV-positive foreigners to come to the U.S.; nor do we bar people with TB from visiting here or immigrating here.

Open borders - Strange, irrational behavior on his part in a time of "war", huh?

61 posted on 02/08/2007 11:59:29 AM PST by janetgreen ("Comprehensive immigration reform" = BUSH AMNESTY)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Calpernia
This makes you wonder about the Taco Bell outbreak. Could have been caused by border types TB employs.

Few years back US citizens were getting ill from Chilean fruit---largely grapes.

It was later determined the fruit-pickers were urinating and defecating in the fields, contaminating areas where the fuit was grown and picked.

62 posted on 02/08/2007 12:05:00 PM PST by Liz (Nearly all men can stand adversity, but to test a man's character, give him power. Abe Lincoln)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: Liz

Strawberries too. They were grown 'black' fertilizer.

And this one:

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2006/03/09/the-case-of-the-bennigans-caesar-salad/
The Case of the Bennigan’s Caesar Salad

Excerpts:

“Did Caesar salad kill a healthy teen?” asks a headline in today’s Newark Star-Ledger.

(snip)

- She ate a Caesar salad and drank a Dr Pepper.

- Tara became violently ill. Within two days, she was hospitalized with kidney failure, apparently the result of food poisoning that left her severely dehydrated.

- Lawyers for Bennigan’s deny the allegations and say there is no evidence to suggest the meal she ate caused her illness.

(/snip)

What is no longer available on the web is Benigan's was using illegal immigrants.

This story died before it got legs.

Tara, a 16 year old is still dead.


63 posted on 02/08/2007 12:10:25 PM PST by Calpernia (Breederville.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: 3AngelaD
How many visa applicants do they test for TB? If you didn't get a visa because you answered the questionaire truthfully, good for you. You are a principled, if lonely, minority. But as a practical matter they do not bar people with TB from coming here.

All applicants are tested. X Rays, vaccination records, they check all of it. when you take your medical exam the results are SEALED and have to be presented unopened to the interviewers taking the visa application (at the consulate in the country the immigrant originates from).

I didn't get blocked; I'm a natvie Texan. My wife went through all of this in order to get her visa to come here.

This amnesty program Bush wants is a TOTAL slap in the face to every immigrant that got here legally.

64 posted on 02/08/2007 12:14:07 PM PST by Centurion2000 (If you're not being shot at, it's not a high stress job.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: Rakkasan1
When are we going to hear "You're doing a hellava job, Cherti!"?

He is as big a joke as the department he heads as well as the boss he answers too. Close the borders and close the Department of Homeland Insecurity. It's only function is more jobs for Bush Buddies to squander taxpayer money on. Give the responsibilities back to the respective agencies and let those who know what they are doing handle their own agency answerable to congress.

65 posted on 02/08/2007 12:29:59 PM PST by cva66snipe (Rudy, the Liberal Media's first choice for the GOP nomination. Not on my vote not even in Nov 2008..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Centurion2000

They're giving all visa applicants a TB test again?


66 posted on 02/08/2007 12:37:14 PM PST by 3AngelaD (ic.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: Vaquero

it is the fault of every president since Eisenhower. Kennedy, LBJ, and on and on.


67 posted on 02/08/2007 1:38:08 PM PST by television is just wrong (Our sympathies are misguided with illegal aliens...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: 3AngelaD
They're giving all visa applicants a TB test again?

They were doing in 2003,2004 & 2005 I can tell you that much.

68 posted on 02/08/2007 1:42:33 PM PST by Centurion2000 (If you're not being shot at, it's not a high stress job.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: Calpernia

Also----if you look at the border food servers "funny"---they do disgusting things to your food.


69 posted on 02/08/2007 3:14:00 PM PST by Liz (Nearly all men can stand adversity, but to test a man's character, give him power. Abe Lincoln)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: gubamyster

Bttt!


70 posted on 02/08/2007 4:07:20 PM PST by TheLion (How about "Comprehensive Immigration Enforcement," for a change)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: HiJinx

Bttt!


71 posted on 02/08/2007 4:08:09 PM PST by TheLion (How about "Comprehensive Immigration Enforcement," for a change)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: Centurion2000
"This amnesty program Bush wants is a TOTAL slap in the face to every immigrant that got here legally."

And to all the people who legally sponsor an immigrant.

72 posted on 02/08/2007 4:10:22 PM PST by azhenfud (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: janetgreen
Open borders - Strange, irrational behavior on his part in a time of "war", huh?

Uh-huh, yup.

73 posted on 02/08/2007 4:48:28 PM PST by Borax Queen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: 3AngelaD

The good hardworking folks The President is intent on granting amnesty.


74 posted on 02/08/2007 4:55:19 PM PST by Rb ver. 2.0 (A Muslim soldier can never be loyal to a non-Muslim commander.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 3AngelaD
Did they do an autopsy?

Yes, there was no 'smoking gun' found. What I'm wondering is whether they were looking in that direction. He went down last July with seizures, they put him in a coma to let it run it's course, then he's been in therapy ever since.

He died last week, a month before his third birthday. He'd been living in San Diego and Phoenix.

75 posted on 02/08/2007 6:44:49 PM PST by HiJinx (Ask me about support for our troops!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: 3AngelaD
So if you have people cooking for you or handling your food who are tapeworm carriers and don't have good personal hygiene, you will be exposed to the eggs of the tapeworm"

So much for trying out that new mexican restaurant...

76 posted on 02/08/2007 6:50:20 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Plutarch
It was wild pigs, says the MSM. Do you reckon the investigators and media were more comfortable blaming pigs than farmworker hygenic deficiencies?

And it's only the wild pigs in CALIFORNIA that contaminate spinach fields and no other state. We train em right!

77 posted on 02/08/2007 9:07:27 PM PST by tertiary01 (Absence of evidence does not necessarily mean evidence of absence.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Plutarch
Do you reckon the investigators and media were more comfortable blaming pigs than farmworker hygenic deficiencies?

Some of the investigators did blame worker hygiene, but the media let that go by without comment. When the contaminated carrot juice story of a few years ago waas traced back directly to a worker, the story disappeared from the media.

Pigs were not a possible "source" but a possible link in the chain of victims. Of course pigs don't have good habits of hygiene either.

As for cattle, the ones that the media show (from file footage) are grazing pasture on the hillsides and they are generally pathogen free. But there are hundres of dirty muddy backyard corrals near the spinach and lettuce fields where Mexicans feed their sorry looking animals garbage and concentrates--micro feed lots, if you will, without the staff veterinarians that the big feed lots have.

78 posted on 02/09/2007 9:09:22 AM PST by Poincare
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Poincare
Some of the investigators did blame worker hygiene....

This is really interesting. At least one person died from the spinach E. coli, and it was a major national story and concern. The source was traced to a particular farm. The MSM, once finding a semi-plausible pig story glommed onto it with obvious relief. They would sooner eat contaminated spinach than report that fieldworker sanitation was the cause.

The MSM will report the truth, except when the truth won't do. If the pigs were just a cover for the truth, this story exemplifies how pervasive and profound the MSM's self-censorship is.

Do you have any links for the sanitation speculation?

79 posted on 02/09/2007 10:21:33 AM PST by Plutarch
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: Plutarch

Perhaps I have overstated the case. Sorry. An official State of California investigator listed worker hygiene as a problem needing attention in the official report. There was no proven cause or pathway, only speculation.

My point was that he said so on camera, but the television news (Salinas station) left out the worker part in the wrapup description and further stories.

I don't have a link to the official report, but Google gave me a half million or so possibilities.

By the way, I have witnessed several instances of Latin fieldworkers pissing and defecating on raspberry fields on neighboring properties despite all efforts of the owners to get them to use the outhouses. The berry plant rows give them cover.


80 posted on 02/09/2007 11:25:20 AM PST by Poincare
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson