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Some health care officials are urging local governments to start providing health care services for the region's illegal aliens -- or get ready for more outbreaks of contagious diseases like tuberculosis. "Unless you're able to do something about the immigration issue, if you cut services to all undocumented ... that's very stupid," said Francisco Semiao, education and outreach coordinator at George Washington Cancer Institute. "You're going to have a bunch of people walking around with who knows what, spreading Lord knows what," he said. "They ride the Metro seven days a week, and you do the math." Although most local...

I Just Read This Great New "Prescription Thriller"-Carmen Piper and the Protest. A Must Read for Any Conspiracy Theorist!

"Americans should be told that diseases long eradicated in this country — tuberculosis, leprosy, polio, for example — and other extremely contagious diseases have been linked directly to" illegal immigrants, Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) told the Business Journal of Phoenix last month.

Health officials: syphilis outbreak worsening in southern Idaho By The Associated Press Thursday, June 30, 2005 BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- A syphilis outbreak that started in 2003 is worsening in Canyon County and parts of southern Idaho, health officials say. Since the outbreak began, the Southwest District Health Department has found 104 cases of the sexually transmitted disease in its region, which covers six counties in southwestern Idaho. Most of the cases have been in Canyon County. The cases have been spread evenly among men and women. Half of those infected have been jailed in the past and 70 percent...

The American Academy of Pediatrics is warning of the worst outbreak of whooping cough in 40 years, while those concerned about border control see it as more evidence that vanquished diseases are spreading due to widespread illegal immigration. Whooping Cough, or pertussis, is particularly dangerous for children and can be fatal in infants, warns the doctors group.

<p>A multidrug-resistant tuberculosis known as MDR-TB is persistent in California, primarily among its "foreign-born" population, and has serious financial implications for the state's public-health system, federal and state health officials said yesterday.</p> <p>"Treatment for MDR-TB is very expensive -- ranging from $200,000 to $1.2 million per person, over an 18- to 24-month time period," said Dr. Reuben Granich, a lead investigator for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during a press conference in the District yesterday.</p>

THE WASHINGTON TIMES A multidrug-resistant tuberculosis known as MDR-TB is persistent in California, primarily among its "foreign-born" population, and has serious financial implications for the state's public-health system, federal and state health officials said yesterday. "Treatment for MDR-TB is very expensive -- ranging from $200,000 to $1.2 million per person, over an 18- to 24-month time period," said Dr. Reuben Granich, a lead investigator for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during a press conference in the District yesterday. Dr. Granich's findings were published yesterday in tomorrow's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in an...

A multidrug-resistant tuberculosis known as MDR-TB is persistent in California, primarily among its "foreign-born" population, and has serious financial implications for the state's public-health system, federal and state health officials said yesterday. "Treatment for MDR-TB is very expensive -- ranging from $200,000 to $1.2 million per person, over an 18- to 24-month time period," said Dr. Reuben Granich, a lead investigator for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during a press conference in the District yesterday.

Leprosy, the contagious skin disease evoking thoughts of biblical and Medieval times, is now making its mark in the United States, and many believe the influx of illegal aliens is a main factor. "Americans should be told that diseases long eradicated in this country – tuberculosis, leprosy, polio, for example – and other extremely contagious diseases have been linked directly to illegals," Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., told the Business Journal of Phoenix. "For example, in 40 years, only 900 persons were afflicted by leprosy in the U.S.; in the past three years, more than 7,000 cases have been presented." "This...

41 of the 222 workers tested for tuberculosis at a chicken plant in Broken Bow, OK have tested positive for exposure, Oklahoma State Health Department workers say. Health workers began testing workers at the Tyson Foods chicken plant after a worker there was diagnosed with the tuberculosis disease.

Government plans to tackle a predicted bird flu pandemic have been attacked by a scientist who fears an outbreak could kill two million people in the UK. Professor Hugh Pennington, president of the Society for General Microbiology, criticised ministers' "optimism" and said a vaccine needs to be ordered now. Experts predict bird flu will mutate with human flu leading to a pandemic. The government says its plans to tackle an outbreak - which include stockpiling antiviral drugs - are comprehensive. Bird flu has killed at least 47 people in South East Asia over 15 months and there are suspected cases...

Sunday, March 13, 2005 INVASION USAIllegal aliens threaten U.S. medical systemDocs journal reports hospitals being closed, previously vanquished diseases being spread Posted: March 13, 20051:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Cristobal Silverio emigrated illegally from Mexico to Stockton, Calif., in 1997 to work as a fruit picker. He brought with him his wife, Felipa, and three children, 19, 12 and 8 – all illegals. When Felipa gave birth to her fourth child, daughter Flor, the family had what is referred to as an "anchor baby" – an American citizen by birth who provided the entire Silverio clan a ticket to remain in...

One Reporter's Opinion – Importing Disease George Putnam Friday, Feb 25, 2005 It is this reporter's opinion that when the president and first lady return from the fence-mending trip to Europe, he and the 'Ayatollah in the White House,' Karl Rove, need to lock themselves in the Oval Office and review the findings of the February 17, 2005 testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee: Three of the nation's highest-ranking Homeland Security officials issued a chilling warning that al-Qaida will exploit our lax border enforcement to infiltrate terrorists and weaponry into the United States. CIA Director Porter Goss, FBI Director Robert...

Contagious diseases are entering the United States because of immigrants, illegal aliens, refugees and travelers, and World Health Organization officials say the worst could be yet to come. In addition to a list of imported diseases that includes tuberculosis, sickle cell anemia, hepatitis B, measles and the potentially deadly parasitic disease Chagas, officials fear what could happen if the avian flu, which is flourishing among poultry in Southeast Asia, mutates so that it is capable of human-to-human transmission through casual contact.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Bahamian Minister of Health Dr. Marcus Bethel enjoy a laugh during a speech given by Dr. Perry Gomez, chief of internal medicine and infectious diseases at Princess Margaret Hospital Friday, Feb. 4, 2005, during a news conference on the hospital lawn in Nassau, Bahamas. Clinton, who is on a three-day visit to the Bahamas, toured the Specialty Clinic which houses the AIDS ward and announced at the briefing that the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation HIV -AIDS Initiative would fund the Bahamas programe. (AP Photo/Tim Aylen)

Have the Spanish bishops approved condoms?Spain's Catholic Church backs condoms to fight AIDS screams a Reuters headline. This seems to be something of an overstatement, but how much? The General Secretary and spokesman of the Spanish Bishops Conference, Fr. Juan Antonio Martínez Camino, met with Spain's health minister yesterday to discuss the bishops' position on the government's AIDS program. The Reuters story in question is stingy with direct quotes from Martínez Camino, none of which justifies the conclusion of the headline. To get a better take on the matter, I looked at several on-line Spanish papers for the story,...

ESSAY How should we set priorities in medical research? Officials at the National Institutes of Health will grapple with this question as they allocate billions of dollars from the agency's budget this year. Two geneticists, Dr. Kathleen Merikangas of the National Institute of Mental Health and Dr. Neil Risch of Stanford University, have taken on this challenge by introducing an intriguing framework for setting priorities for genetic research. The best candidates for genetic research, they believe, are disorders whose emergence and course cannot be derailed by changes in personal habits or manipulation of the environment. Examples are autism, Type 1...

In Israel, almost everyone dresses casually. Aside from the television anchormen on the nightly newscast, you can often go for days without seeing a necktie. This also applies to Israeli doctors, who usually treat patients in clinics, hospitals or privately, in open-necked shirtsleeves. This cultural difference between Israel and the United States caught the interest of Steven Nurkin, a native of New York who has spent this year finishing his medical school studies at the American-Technion Program of the Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine in Haifa. "We had the opportunity to do an elective in the U.S. - where eventually...

As an American, I have always been inspired by the fact that my country welcomes those who seek refuge. And as long as our government officials maintain our borders and ensure that those coming from other countries are screened in order to protect those who legally live here, the concept of welcoming immigrants is a noble one. However, something has gone awry. Indeed, illegal immigration into the U.S. has become an immense problem and a clear and present danger. Documented illegal immigration has more than doubled in the last decade. It has grown, by conservative counts, from 3.5 million in...

Washington, August 4 Environmental changes, such as replacing forests with ranchland, combined with genetic mutations, can produce viruses like SARS and HIV, according to a research from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). Researchers reached this conclusion after studying viruses from two late-20th-century outbreaks of Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) - a deadly illness that can cause brain inflammation in horses and people - in Mexico and compared them with a similar virus that does not usually infect horses or people. They suggested that replacing forests with ranchland along a 805-kilometre-long, 32- to 80-kilometre-wide stretch of Mexico's and Guatemala's Pacific...