latent TB infection

An uncomfortably high number of positive tests results for tuberculosis came back to a west Texas border senior day care center, putting city health officials on alert as they monitor the cases to see if any show signs of active TB.

The number of foreign-born cases of active tuberculosis (TB) spiked 20 percent in Nevada in 2015, up to 60 from 50 in 2014.

The Washtenaw County Public Health Department in Michigan is refusing to release refugee latent tuberculosis (TB) infection rates, the Washtenaw County Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Coordinator tells Breitbart News.

One of the 3,554 refugees resettled in Ingham County, Michigan (Lansing) during the six years beginning October 1, 2010 and ending on September 30, 2016 (FY 2011 to FY 2016) has been diagnosed with multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB), the Ingham County Health Department tells Breitbart News.

It concerns the reporting and monitoring of the health status of the more than 4,000 refugees who were resettled in the state in FY 2016, the more than 20,000 who arrived in the preceding decade, and the 5,600 the Obama administration wants to bring in to the state this coming fiscal year.

The state of Michigan is refusing to release refugee health data to the public unless a Freedom of Information Act request is filed.

Twenty-one refugees resettled in Nebraska were diagnosed with active tuberculosis (TB) between 2011 and 2015, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services tells Breitbart News.

CLEVELAND, Ohio–Eleven refugees have been diagnosed with active tuberculosis in Summit County, Ohio, over the past six years, Dr. Margo Erme, medical director of the Summit County Public Health Department tells Breitbart News.

All told, in the six years between 2010 and 2015, seven cases of MDR TB were diagnosed in the state of Tennessee, including the three Nashville cases. The Tennessee Department of Health confirms that two of these seven cases of MDR TB were refugees, four were foreign-born but not refugees, and one was U.S.-born.

Dr. Jane Orient tells Breitbart News: “It is grossly irresponsible for a public health official to be cavalier about the introduction of even one case [of active TB] in her jurisdiction.”

The admission comes one month after Breitbart News reported ten recently arrived refugees in Colorado were diagnosed with active tuberculosis (TB). Between 2011 and 2014, 16 out of 7,754 refugees were diagnosed with active TB at the time of their initial medical screening.

That brings the total of refugees the Vermont Department of Health now admits have been diagnosed with active TB between 2003 and June 30, 2016 to seventeen. Since only 6,300 refugees have arrived in Vermont over the past twenty-five years, these new statistics reveal a third-world level of active TB among the refugees currently residing in the Green Mountain State.

On Tuesday Tennessee Attorney General Herb Slatery gave the Tennessee General Assembly a green light to sue the federal government on Tenth Amendment grounds over its resettlement of refugees in the Volunteer State.

The introduction of MDR TB to the United States represents a serious public health threat, since its successful treatment is uncertain and very expensive. Active TB can usually be treated successfully in six to nine months at a cost of $17,000 per patient, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), but MDR TB treatment costs over $150,000 per patient and can take between 20 and 26 months.

This makes Idaho the seventh state to confirm to Breitbart News that recently arrived refugees have been diagnosed with active TB.

Dr. John Baird, Health Officer for the Fargo Cass Public Health Department in North Dakota, confirms to Breitbart News that the agency, which serves all of Cass County, has diagnosed and treated four refugees with active tuberculosis (TB) between 2012 and 2015.

Louisiana now has the dubious distinction as the state with the highest reported number of recently resettled refugees with active TB —at least among the five states that have confirmed to Breitbart that refugees resettled in their state have either arrived with active TB, or developed it within the first year of their arrival.

“These statistics underscore the urgency [of the public health risk posed by the refugee resettlement program in Tennessee],” Norris tells Breitbart News.

Nine of the 842 refugees who arrived in Kentucky between 2013 and 2015 were diagnosed with active TB, according to the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department.

Two-thirds of contagious tuberculosis carriers in the United States during 2015 were born overseas, up from one-fifth in 1986.

The scientific findings come from the research team headed by Dr. Timothy Rodwell, “an associate professor and physician in the Division of Global Health at UCSD” and one of the top tuberculosis experts in the world. They belie political arguments made by immigration advocates that reporting on the public health risks posed by high rates of latent TB infection (LTBI) among refugees is a “baseless exercise in fear mongering” and “incite[s] a vast overreaction.”

Thirty-five percent of the 901 refugees resettled in Vermont by the federal government between 2013 and 2016 tested positive for latent TB infection, according to data provided to Vermont Watchdog by the Vermont Department of Health.