Thread: FL-Tuberculosis outbreaks at schools spur anti-imm tirades

Tuberculosis outbreaks at Palm Beach County schools spur anti-immigrant tirades
Comments 36

By Stacey Singer Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Updated: 6:54 a.m. Thursday, June 10, 2010

Posted: 8:25 p.m. Wednesday, June 9, 2010


Anti-immigrant tirades on the Internet have health officials cringing as they work to contain tuberculosis outbreaks at two Palm Beach County schools.

Fair or not, in a year when the public schools absorbed more than 650 Haitian earthquake victims, much of the vitriol about the disease has been directed toward those unfortunate students.

Health officials find themselves in a bind, as privacy laws prevent them from answering the anonymous slurs.

"I can only acknowledge that the individual has TB. Race, color, creed, birthplace etc. that might identify the individual are confidential," said Palm Beach County Health Department spokesman Tim O'Connor.

Into that breach, the rumor mill has taken over. Parents and children at both Seminole Ridge High School in Loxahatchee and Orchard View Elementary in Delray Beach want to know who the ill students are, to assess their children's risk of becoming ill, too. It takes many hours of breathing the same air with a contagious person for TB to spread.

As results from skin tests trickle in, some students and parents at Seminole Ridge High School said they thought they knew who brought the multidrug-resistant tuberculosis into their school in May.

"Word's gone around that it's some girl who's not from here," said Joey Tooley, 16, repeating the name of a Haitian teenager he doesn't know well. "I had first hour with her, but only for a few days. I have friends who had a lot of classes with her."

Angel Portieles has spent days trying to recall whether anyone in his classes coughed a great deal and missed the last week.

"I think she might have been in my Spanish class," he said.

Miguel Medina said his daughters shared a bus stop with the student he believes is the sick one. He's following the health department's instructions, but choosing not to get worked up.

"I am a veteran. I went to Afghanistan, and we went through this three times there," he said.

The anonymous Web comments have been more heated, ranging from worried to hate-filled.

"Haitian refugees and illegals are carrying all kinds of diseases that we haven't had here in decades," one said.

"This is what you get when you open the borders to indigents," said another.

"How many Haitians did we let into our country?" asked a third. "I'm sure none were screened at all."

Not true, said the health department's O'Connor.

First, there is no connection between the TB investigation and his agency's response to the influx of earthquake refugees in January, he said.

Second, the Haitian quake refugees who entered the public schools had to meet the same vaccination requirements as all other students, under orders from Palm Beach County Health Department Director Dr. Alina Alonso, he said.

"It was Dr. Alonso who said, 'We want them tested, we want them seen, and we want them to have their shots before they start school,' " O'Connor said. "All the refugees, before they entered school, were completely evaluated. All their shots were brought up to date ."

O'Connor said some of the workers hired for the H1N1 flu vaccination campaign helped vaccinate the earthquake refugees.

The health department is keenly aware that unusual tropical diseases and other germs can migrate to Florida with travelers, whether it's malaria, Dengue fever or tuberculosis, he said.

Tuberculosis requires many months of costly drugs to cure, and an organized public health response to ensure that people stay on the drugs, even when side effects are unpleasant.

Because of those costs, less-developed nations have more TB. But in an increasingly interconnected world, their problem is also the United States' problem.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/tuber ... e=rss_news

Aren't ALL kids REQUIRED to have a TB test before being enrolled in school? Or is this another requirement for citizen kids that does not apply to foreign born students?

Originally Posted by Texan123

Aren't ALL kids REQUIRED to have a TB test before being enrolled in school? Or is this another requirement for citizen kids that does not apply to foreign born students?

Here in Georgia...you can find thousands who have sneaked across the border to Arizona...made their way to Georgia and straight to a restaurant’s employee or school’s cafeteria employ. I didn’t believe it four years ago when I called the so called “Food Safetyâ€

If Pro-ILLEGAL comments were expected I'm certain comments would be "accepted"!

Statement at the bottom of the source artilce:

"User comments are not being accepted on this article."

It was eradicated in the US... How else did it get reintroduced?
Immigrants are required to take a chest X-Ray.

Illegal alien brought it in!!!!!!!!!!!

Dixie

Sent the following response to the article in the section at the end requesting feedback from readers to the online "newspaper" story:

"Your article "Tuberculosis outbreaks at Palm Beach County schools spur anti-immigrant tirades" contains a statement at the end of the artilce; "User comments are not being accepted on this article.". If you had expected Pro-ILLEGAL comments would you have "accepted comments"? Also the headline should had instead stated "spur anti-ILLEGAL immigrant" not your misleading "spur anti-immigrant", only intended to set the stage for a Pro-ILLEGAL sob story. "