Webloggin » Another Benefit of Open Borders - Drug Resistant Tuberculosis

The CDC issued a public advisory today on a “public investigation” seeking people who may have been exposed to an extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB) infected person.

WHAT:

Release of information about the action and steps that CDC is taking in response to a case of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB) in a U.S. citizen who undertook international travel. XDR TB is a recently defined subtype of multi-drug resistant TB and can cause severe illness and death.

WHY:

Like all forms of TB, XDR TB is a disease caused by germs that are spread person-to-person through the air. In this case, the infected patient traveled on two trans-Atlantic air flights and in doing so, may have exposed passengers and crew to XDR TB. A federal quarantine order has been issued and CDC is currently collaborating with U.S. state and local health departments, international Ministries of Health, the airline industry, and WHO.

Supposedly this is stemming from a slew of events that started on May 12th, involved 2 international flights, one into Paris from Atlanta, one into Canada from Prague and ending with a May 24 cross country drive by the man from Montreal back into the United States.

To make matters worse the man was already on a no fly list because he was known to have the disease. This person was jet setting around and driving from country to country for 17 days before he was finally quarantined.

Why did the man fly even though he knew he was not supposed to travel? According to the CDC the man claimed “he had very important personal reasons”. Listen to the whole NPR report here.

Note that the person’s identity is being protected and nobody is saying how or where they believe he caught the disease. My bet is that he is a frequent international traveler, has money, and picked it up somewhere overseas. The selfishness of the man is unbelievable.

Keep in mind that the mortality rate of the disease has been reported to be as high as 98% and very few drugs will treat it.

Here’s a brief history of recent stories involving this disease:

On January 23, 2007 The Guardian UK published an article that detailed the plight of those infected with the disease. The fear, a disease with a mortality rate of 98% my result in the forceful detention of those infected.

South Africa is considering forcibly detaining people who carry a deadly strain of tuberculosis that has already claimed hundreds of lives. The strain threatens to cause a global pandemic, but the planned move pits public protection against human rights.

[~snip]

More than 300 cases of the highly infectious disease, which is spread by airborne droplets and kills 98% of those infected within about two weeks, have been identified in South Africa.

But doctors believe there have been hundreds, possibly thousands, more and the numbers are growing among the millions of people with HIV, who are particularly vulnerable to the disease. Their fear is that patients with XDR-TB, told that there is little that can be done for them, will leave the isolation wards and go home to die. But while they are still walking around they risk spreading the infection.

Now a group of doctors has warned in a medical journal that if enforced isolation is not introduced XDR-TB could swamp South Africa and spread far beyond its borders. Regular TB is already the single largest killer of people with Aids in South Africa. - (The dilemma of a deadly disease: patients may be forcibly detained)

On April 13th I wrote an article that detailed how Australia has a ban on immigrants with a deadly strain of tuberculosis and was considering extending that ban to immigrants with HIV. As is typical of the mainstream media spin machine we were rewarded with idiotic statements about how HIV differs from other diseases and that those infected posed no risk to the population despite stats that showed just the opposite.

After reading the Guardian UK report however I have learned that people with HIV are particularly vulnerable to contracting the deadly form of tuberculosis. Something that was not reported in the BBC report. Thus chalk up another whopper from gay lobby advocates that are condemning the proposed Australia ban despite knowing full and well that they are pushing a lie by omitting this fact. The science backs the ban despite the sexual orientation of the immigrant. This is not a gay issue and I am offended by those who are trying to make it one.

In May of 2007 an international alert was issued after a man had flown on a trans-Atlantic flight despite being infected with the disease.

WASHINGTON: Public health officials on Tuesday urged the passengers and crew of two recent trans-Atlantic flights to get checked for tuberculosis, after learning that a man with an exceptionally drug-resistant form of the disease had flown on the planes.

The man, an American who was not identified, flew on May 12 from Atlanta to Paris aboard Air France Flight 385, then traveled on May 24 from Prague to Montreal aboard Czech Air Flight 410 before driving back to the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced. He is currently hospitalized in an isolation ward.

Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the CDC, announced the matter.

While tuberculosis is not highly transmissible, the deadliness of this strain - and the ease of modern transportation - underscored the need for rapid response, as with the SARS epidemic.

A federal quarantine order was issued - the first since 1963 - and the CDC is working with state and local health departments, airline officials, international health ministries and the World Health Organization, Gerberding said, according to Bloomberg News. - International Herald Tribune

According to the CBC 37 countries - including Canada - have reported cases of XDR-TB, as it is called, experts admit they have no clear idea of how many cases exist worldwide.

What does all this have to do with immigration? Simple, it is a fact that strains of drug resistant diseases are coming into the United States from outside our borders. They predominantly pop up in countries with sub-standard health care (and yes, just about every country in the world has health care below our standards in the United States). The causes are many.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), TB has increased in the last few years due to:

* The spread of HIV/AIDS
* Emergence of drug-resistant strains of TB
* Increased travel and immigration worldwide - (src global healthgate)

Many illegal-immigration activists would point out that these diseases can and do come into the country via plane and boat. That is true. But as was seen in the Atlanta case we have records of these people and can act appropriately in a manner that can not be done with illegal immigrants. Still one can not wonder if this case would have been prevented if our border policy was not so open.

Politicians who refuse to secure our borders just to make a buck or get a vote are intentionally ignoring all of the dangers posed by illegal immigration. In many cases as with the XDR-TB strain we can not see the danger until someone is lying on their deathbed as a result.

This is yet another reason why Americans are so opposed to the latest shamnesty bill coming out of Congress. It is not due to racism or irrational fear; it is based on valid concerns for our safety from terrorists, gangs, drugs and unchecked diseases that can trickle by our open defenses in a flood. Quite simply the bill does not secure our borders BEFORE dealing with guest workers and naturalization. This will not do.

Any politician that signs off on a bill that does not enforce the borders first is deluding themselves that American’s don’t care about the safety of their families. They are making a calculated wager. I am here to tell them that it is a losing bet. Secure our borders or be voted out of office.

Update: Recall that the CDC claimed the mane had “very important personal reasons” for traveling despite being told not to. Now we know just how important, he wanted to travel to Greece to get married. This is nothing short of criminal. He had been on that no fly list since 1963!

The globe-trotting tale of the man, his fiancee, their wedding and honeymoon abroad — and conflicting recollections of what he was told about his disease and whether he could travel — culminated Tuesday with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issuing an international health alert. (AJC)

The man claims to be well educated and “didn’t want to put anybody at risk”; after all, he feels healthy.

“I didn’t want to put anybody at risk,” the Fulton County man, who declined to be identified because of the stigma attached to his diagnosis, said in a telephone interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We just wanted to come home and get treatment.”

Since January the man, who said he has no symptoms and feels healthy, has met regularly for treatment with Fulton County health officials. He said they and CDC knew he had drug-resistant TB before he left the United States but did not prohibit him from leaving when he told them about his upcoming wedding in Greece.

He questioned why nobody told him to cancel his wedding before he left Atlanta — and why the CDC waited until he was on his honeymoon in Rome to order him into isolation.

“I’m a very well-educated, successful, intelligent person,” he said. “This is insane to me that I have an armed guard outside my door when I’ve cooperated with everything other than the whole solitary confinement in Italy thing.”

Ok, I give.

Question: If the man is so well educated how come he is stupid enough to travel despite the ban?

Answer: Because he didn’t give a shit. An educated man knows full and well that you can be a carrier despite not having symptoms. Like I said, criminal.

As for the authorities on the case, negligent across the board.