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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Chickenpox and flu: Migrants are getting sick at the U.S.-Mexico border

    Chickenpox and flu: Migrants are getting sick at the U.S.-Mexico border

    Fernanda Martinez, 6 from Honduras stands at the doorway to the room where she and her mother, Jasmine Martinez, 34 were quarantined to because they had chicken pox. As of August 15th the two are free to move about the shelter at the Agape World Mission shelter in Tijuana, Mexico.
    (Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune)


    By WENDY FRY
    AUG. 19, 2019 12:01 AM

    Tijuana, Baja California — On her first day out of quarantine Thursday, 6-year-old Fernanda Martinez was ecstatic. She raced a mini-green quad up and down the hall outside the dark room where she spent four weeks separated from everyone because of a severe case of the chicken pox.

    Greeting all the other children at the Agape Misión Mundial shelter in Tijuana, Martinez decided they were all her best friends. She announced she was equally excited to see everyone.


    Her scabs aren’t completely healed, but a doctor gave her the green-light to finally leave the room where people have been quarantined with varicela, or chicken pox.


    “She cried and cried and cried because she could not go around any of the other children,” said her mother, Jasmine Martinez, a 34-year-old from Honduras. “I was crying for her because it was so hard seeing her suffering.”


    Martinez said after fleeing gangs, traveling a rough road from Honduras, spending about a week in U.S. detention and then being returned to Mexico, where she and her two children don’t know anyone, coming down with the chicken pox in a crowded Tijuana shelter was the challenge that finally caused her 6-year-old daughter to break down into tears.
    Pastor Albert Rivera, who runs the Agape shelter, said at one point there were up to 40 people with the highly-contagious virus that causes an itchy rash and small fluid-filled blisters. Now, there are around five people who still have to remain in quarantine, but there are a total of 73 people sick with other illnesses of the 225 migrants sheltered at Agape, he said.

    Rivera said because the incubation period for chicken pox is 10 to 21 days, it’s unclear if migrants are getting sick in crowded conditions in U.S. detention or if they are arriving at the border from their home countries with the contagious illnesses.


    What is clear is that illnesses typically spread very quickly among migrants in Tijuana shelters.



    “Because they are all in such close quarters, once one person gets it, they all get it,” said Dr. Julie Sierra from UC San Diego Health. Sierra volunteers as a medical consultant to groups assisting migrants in Tijuana and has been volunteering in Baja California shelters on Saturdays.

    Sierra said many of the illnesses she’s seen - like upper respiratory infections, scabies and stomach illnesses - are typically minor sicknesses, but they can be very serious for pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems.


    “If you’re in a situation where you’re not getting enough food or the right food and your body is strained and under stress ... you’re just going to be more susceptible to infections,” she said.


    She also said because migrants come from different parts of the world and then stay together in close quarters in the same shelters, they may being exposed to certain illnesses for the first time.


    “People from different countries are exposed to different illnesses through their life, so they build up different antibodies in their bodies,” said Sierra. “So, a virus or infection that one person might be able to resist, another person from a different part of the world might not have had the chance to build up antibodies to that particular illness.”


    Héctor Guitérrez is the coordinator for migrant services for the incoming state government of Baja California. He is working to bring enough medicine to all the shelters.


    “We are seeing a lot of cases of the flu,” he said. Guitérrez estimated about 10 percent of migrants in Baja California shelters are currently sick and about 2 percent have the chicken pox.


    Guitérrez said migrants are pushing their bodies to the limit to get from Central America to the U.S.-Mexico border in Baja California, which weakens their immune system. He also said the climate could be contributing to some people’s illnesses.


    “Tijuana’s climate is very hard to adjust to. We have very cold nights and very hot days. So, especially if you come from a more tropical climate, they’re just not accustomed to it. Also, they are probably very tired from their journey. Their defense systems are already low and they aren’t getting the best nutrition,” said Guitérrez.

    A woman who has chicken pox and preferred to not use her name remained in isolation on August 15, 2019 at the Agape World Mission shelter in Tijuana, Mexico.
    (Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune)


    One woman from Guatemala, who did not want to give her name because she feared it could impact her immigration proceedings, said she had been waiting at Agape for two days for a doctor to come with more medicine to treat her itchy sores from the chicken pox. On Thursday, she said the last time she received any treatment from a doctor was five days prior.

    A Baja California state representative told the San Diego Union-Tribune a doctor was coming to Agape with refills of medicine later in the day on Thursday.

    Chicken pox is generally a mild disease in people with otherwise healthy immune symptoms, but it can lead to serious complications for pregnant women, babies and people whose immune symptoms are already weakened with other diseases.

    “Chicken pox can be very, very serious for pregnant women. And they shouldn’t really be around anyone who’s been actively infected,” said Dr. Sierra.


    The woman with an active chicken pox outbreak said she had recently crossed into the United States but was returned under the Migrant Protection Protocols, better known as Remain in Mexico program. She said she didn’t think she could wait in Tijuana until her court date in November, but wasn’t sure if she was going to try to cross illegally back into the U.S. or move somewhere else in Mexico, after she gets better.


    “I won’t be going back to Guatemala,” she said emphatically, but declined to say why. “I cannot go back there.”


    The Remain in Mexico policy requires migrants to wait for their upcoming immigration hearings in Mexico rather than the United States.

    Guitérrez, who works as a liaison between the newly elected governor and the migrant shelters, said the government has not seen such a severe outbreak of the chicken pox in other shelters, but they are monitoring each one carefully.

    [Jasmine Marinez, 34 and her daughter Fernanda Martinez, 6 from Honduras enjoy their first day out of isolation on August 15, 2019. The two have been in isolation for chicken pox for the past month at the Agape World Mission shelter in Tijuana, Mexico.
    (Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune)


    Shelters in Baja California are privately run, making getting an exact count on how many migrants are sick difficult. The state representative said there was not an exact number of how many cases of chicken pox, tuberculosis or other illnesses were documented across the state, but there were health institutions regularly checking each shelter.

    Sergio Tamai, who runs the Hotel Migrante in Mexicali and leads a coalition of shelters across the state, confirmed health authorities are visiting the shelters weekly.


    Pastor Gustavo Banda of the Embajadores de Jesús (Ambassadors of Jesus) church, which operates a shelter in Cañón del Alacrán (Scorpion’s Canyon), said many people returned under the Migrant Protection Protocols having been arriving in Tijuana from the United States very sick.


    “Fortunately, we do not have the chicken pox, but the flu is always there because people return from the hieleras, but everything is under control because we always have doctors,” said Banda, who also confirmed state health authorities have been readily available.


    Las hieleras or “the iceboxes” is a nickname for the frigid, cramped holding cells in U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities.


    A CBP spokesman for the San Diego-sector said when migrants arrive sick at the border they are quarantined on-site, medically evaluated, and taken to a hospital if necessary. He said numbers were not immediately available for how many migrants have been treated for illnesses in recent weeks, but the agency was working to obtain the numbers.


    CBP Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Rodolfo Karisch said agents take about 30 migrants a day to the emergency room, according to the Texas Tribune.


    CBP has faced criticism over how sick migrants are treated in U.S. custody after numerous migrant children have died.


    “There are a lot of people that are traveling to the United States that are already ill and infirm. Many times, we won’t know about it — they’re not showing any signs of it,” Karisch said at a press conference earlier this month. “We are seeing every infirmity that you can name, from mumps to [tuberculosis], scabies. You name it, our agents are seeing it.”


    In the Agape shelter, the Department of Health in Baja California tested migrants for tuberculosis after a man crossed into the United States with the serious infectious disease that affects the lungs. He told U.S. authorities he had stayed at the Agape shelter, who passed the information on to Baja California authorities, according to Rivera.


    “He didn’t tell them he was sick when he crossed over because he didn’t think they would let him into the United States,” said Rivera, who said the man only spent one night at Agape.


    A CBP spokesman said the agency does not return migrants based on their health status, but he said if a migrant has his or her immigration hearing on a day when they have an active contagious illness, that appointment would likely have to be rescheduled.


    Marivelle Perez said, who fled gangs in Honduras, said she was glad her 6-year-old daughter Marissa came down with the flu right when they were returned to Tijuana, months before their scheduled immigration hearing.


    “I do not want to imagine waiting all these months here and then getting sick before our court date and having to wait many more months,” said Perez, who said she and her family have endured enough. “God will bless us with good health now.”


    Guitérrez said the shelters in Tijuana are doing their best to care for people, including sick migrants, without receiving any public funds. He said the international community could help out by sending donations to local shelters in Tijuana.


    “There’s 15 to 20 shelters in Tijuana that are doing an excellent job, but they need more help,” said Guitérrez. “Right now, funds will not be available until the end of the year so there is a lot of need of that international help.”

    https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...-mexico-border
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  2. #2
    Moderator Beezer's Avatar
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    They can go home and RELOCATE within their own country.
    ILLEGAL ALIENS HAVE "BROKEN" OUR IMMIGRATION SYSTEM

    DO NOT REWARD THEM - DEPORT THEM ALL

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