10 Illegal Immigrant Minors Diagnosed with TB

DALLAS, Texas — Ten unaccompanied alien children (UAC), who entered the U.S. illegally, were diagnosed with Tuberculosis (TB) between January through September, CNS News is reporting. All were detained while trying to enter the United States from the Mexican border, according to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Their points of entry were not disclosed.

According to CNS News, these children were allowed to stay in the United States.

ORR spokesman Kenneth Wolfe told the news outlet in an email that the children were isolated and treated, “after being rendered non-infectious, all 10 were released to verified sponsors in the U.S.”

Wolfe also said, “The respective local health department connects with the health department in the city in which the child is released through the inter-jurisdictional TB notification system, and our Office of Refugee Resettlement also notifies the state.  Then, the local TB control program follows up with the child and family.”

He said that none of the illegal minors with active TB are currently in the UAC program. Besides the 10 illegal minors diagnosed with TB, 125 were also diagnosed with chicken pox (Varicella), according to the article.

Wolfe also told CNS News that the ORR has not had reports of other diseases requiring isolation. He said that the ORR follows CDC guidance on these and other public health concern matters.

“Unaccompanied minors are given medical screening when they arrive at US border stations, and if necessary medical treatment,” Wolfe stated, adding that once they are part of the HHS UAC program, they get a well-child exam and are inoculated with childhood vaccinations against communicable diseases, including TB, plus a mental health exam.

He did not say if they were tested specifically for the deadly Enterovirus D-68, which former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkinson questioned if there was a possible connection to these illegal immigrant minors. Breitbart News reported that Attkinson cited a Virology Journal study which “found ;EV-D68 among some of the 3,375 young, ill people tested in eight Latin American countries, including the Central American nationsof El Salvador and Nicaragua, in 2013.”

Enterovirus D-68 (EV-D68) has now claimed the lives of five youngsters nationwide. FOX News reported a sixth death on October 12. There are 691 US confirmed cases of EV-D68. They are all children. Fourteen cases are in Texas. An 11 year-old North Texas boy from Collin County is being treated with EV-D68 polio-like symptoms of paralysis since the summer.

Wolfe also said in his emailed statement about the confirmed TB cases, “If it is determined that children have certain communicable diseases or have been exposed to such communicable diseases, they are placed in a program or facility that has the capacity to quarantine.”

He pointed out that children with serious health conditions are treated at local hospitals and that the tab for these service are “fully paid by the federal government.”

Follow Merrill Hope on Twitter @OutOfTheBoxMom.