Thread: Local TB cases up in Arizona and Sonora children

Local TB cases up in Arizona and Sonora children
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December 14, 2008 - 7:08 PM
BY GEOVANA RUANO, BAJO EL SOL
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Son. - Members of the Binational Health and Environment Council are concerned about the increase of tuberculosis (TB) cases among children on both sides of the border.
That concern was expressed by Dr. Jose L. Munoz, co-chair of the council, and Yuma County state Sen. Amanda Aguirre and president of the Regional Center for Border Health (RCBH), during the 15th Binational Symposium on Tuberculosis held in this city last week.

The senator reported that the incidence of tuberculosis in children has been on the rise in Arizona, primarily in Hispanic children who emigrated from Mexico. She indicated that currently in Yuma, the rate of TB cases is 10 times higher than the national rate, a situation that has them very worried.
She added that among actions taken to cut the chain of tuberculosis infection in the community and to alleviate the suffering of those who already have TB, is keeping a very close collaboration with Sonora and San Luis Rio Colorado to trace contacts and families of those who migrate in both directions.

"We have a sister community because we have family on both sides and we want to continue with education, with the detection of persons with TB and start treatment as soon as it can possible," said Aguirre, who 15 years ago introduced the proposal for TB control on this border and opened the symposium.

Dr. Munoz stressed the importance to raise awareness in the population about the existence of the disease: "Many people think tuberculosis is gone, but the truth is that it is increasing in children."

Aguirre added that the biggest problem is self-medication given by mothers to their children when they cough, which makes drug-resistant bacteria.

The event that brought together the medical community on both sides of the border also involved San Luis General Hospital director, Marco Antonio Ramirez Wakamatzu, which has detected 75 percent of all registered cases in Sonora.

The doctor said there are many cases of tuberculosis in the city and that it is important to work together because on the national level, Baja California is No. 1 in number of cases.

He stressed that TB is a curable disease, that the municipality is working with about 40 cases (between new and old) each year and that the disease is linked to social, cultural and economic factors that often involve drug addiction, alcoholism, malnutrition and social isolation.

Cristian Miguel Tapia Flores, coordinator of the Program in Sonora Microbacteriosis, reported that in 2007, Sonora reported 727 TB cases and that in 2006 the disease caused the deaths of 67 Sonoran residents.

He noted that so far the state has lost the battle against the disease in eight patients resistant to traditional drug therapy and that another seven patients with drug resistance are still alive.

Unfortunately, he acknowledged, in Mexico there is no access to second-stage drugs to curb the disease and it is very difficult to obtain them. However, he said that thanks to the binational agreement, Arizona supplies those second-stage treatments.

http://www.yumasun.com/articles/arizona ... ldren.html

Plyer vs. Doe...the case that ruled that American public school systems must educate illegal alien students from K-12 has not only caused severe financial strains on public school districts all across our nation,.....but has created a public health risk...placing American students' health in jeopardy because of medically unscreened illegal alien students in their midst. Shameful.

I had to show my child was fully vaccinated before she was allowed in school. How hard would it be for the schools to also demand that all children be tested for TB 1)before the beginning of each school year and 2)again after winter break? Most parents could/would take the kids to their family doctor and bring in a doctors note stating they were tested and are negative. For those whose parents refused, the school could arrange for all who weren't tested to be tested on a Saturday before school began. It would only take a few seconds each for a school nurse to poke each kids arm, and another few seconds each for the kids to be quickly checked to see if there was a reaction (TB) a couple days later. Any child whose parents refused, or any child who wasn't tested should be kept out of school until they comply. I don't want my kid's lungs to be damaged because someone else can't take care of their own kid's health problems. I can only keep her safe from what I can control. If some sick kid is coughing TB germs in a classroom, because his/her parents would rather ignore it or not find out if their child has TB, I can't help my child.

One day as a public school teacher we were all called into a faculty meeting after school. The people from CDC were there and everyone was wondering what the heck was going on. All of the teachers were informed that one of our lovely kids who was a transitional student was tested positive for TB after becoming ill. Talk about furious. They would not tell us who the kid was or who had contact with the kid. We were told that within a week we would be individually notified if we needed to be tested. Of course all of this would be at our own expense including the medication and any medical treatment our own family might need. Of course this is what happens when you work in an inner city school where they have over 50% of the kids who are "undocumented."