Thread: Mexican w/ TB crossed 76 times into US

Mexican crisscrossed border with TB
By Sara A. Carter and Audrey Hudson
October 18, 2007




Amado Isidro Armendariz Amaya, of Chihuahua, Mexico, who authorities say has a highly contagious form of tuberculosis, entered the United States 76 times between Aug. 14, 2006, and May 31, 2007.

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A Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis crossed the U.S. border 76 times and took multiple domestic flights in the past year, according to Customs and Border Protection interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Times.



The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency was warned by health officials on April 16 that the frequent traveler was infected, but it took Homeland Security officials more than six weeks to issue a May 31 alert to warn its own border inspectors, according to Homeland Security sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Homeland Security took a further week to tell its own Transportation Security Agency.



Multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a highly contagious illness and also resistant to the two most commonly used drugs to treat TB. It is the same dangerous strain of tuberculosis that concerned health officials when Andrew Speaker, a 31-year-old Atlanta lawyer, slipped into the U.S. from Europe via a flight to Canada. The story set off alarms that the system had failed to identify the contagious passenger, which led to congressional hearings in June.



A physician with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that his agency usually only notifies airlines of possibly infected passengers if the flight is eight hours or longer. But other doctors say the disease can be transmitted within minutes — especially in people with lowered immunity — and recommend that anyone coming in contact with this form of TB seek medical attention.



World Health Organization guidelines, which were rewritten in 2006 and adopted by the CDC, state that "physicians should inform all MDR-TB patients that they must not travel by air — under any circumstances or on a flight of any duration until they are proven" not to have the disease.



"You can argue that even one single cough would transmit TB, which is, in fact, what is probably happening," said Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO's Stop TB department, in a conference call with reporters in June. "It was seen that at least eight hours were required for someone to infect someone else. It does not mean that you cannot get infected in the first one minute, but it means statistically speaking that it's much less likely to get infected until your hours of contact increase."



Christopher White, Transportation Security Administration spokesman, said TSA was notified on the morning of June 7 by Homeland Security officials "that a person infected with MDR-TB may be attempting to use the U.S. transportation system."



"TSA leadership quickly convened, and the individual was added to our no-board list" in a matter of four hours, Mr. White said.

See Lauraingraham.com for full report!

This is a duplicate thread. One was started last night.

That's OK you're new and we welcome you SWFLBELL. Glad to have you in the fight for our country. WELCOME.

Originally Posted by SWFLBELL

See Lauraingraham.com for full report!

Welcome to ALIPAC. I'm glad you joined us !

Welcome to Alipac.......

Use "search" before posting to find other threads of same subject.

Here is the most active thread. This story is all over the place!
http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ara+carter

I apologize. This article was an update to the story.
Here is the remainder of the story, is two pages.

In that time, the infected man, identified as Amado Isidro Armendariz Amaya, made at least one more trip across the U.S. border, on May 21, where he applied for an I-94 visa to extend his stay in the U.S.



Roger Maier, spokesman with El Paso CBP says the delay for issuing a "be on the lookout" (BOLO) alert to stop the man at the border was caused by the traveler's use of an alias.



Attempts to identify the subject failed "because information provided to Mexican health officials is not accurate" when an alias is used, Mr. Maier said in an e-mail. "Efforts to obtain solid data ... were achieved on May 31."



Other documents reveal that the Mexican government had known for more than five years of the condition of Mr. Armendariz, a businessman from Juarez, a city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. The officials who spoke on that condition of anonymity said, "Information sharing is still at an all-time low, if not nonexistent, in issues such as these."



"For the first five years, he self-medicated and was noncompliant [with] Mexican State Health Department treatments. ... His father and sister both died of TB in Chihuahua," an internal DHS e-mail states.



Homeland Security employees were told in June that they would be fired if the situation with Mr. Armendariz went public. At the same time, DHS officials were preparing to testify before Congress regarding the Speaker case, which had been front-page news across the nation.



The congressional investigation found that the CDC lacks a reliable means of preventing someone infected with a biological agent from entering or leaving the U.S. Congressional committees have taken up a bill to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to provide more assistance in preventing, treating and controlling tuberculosis.



Meanwhile in El Paso, Luis Garcia, director of CBP field operations, fired off a June 1 message to his employees to be on the lookout for Mr. Armendariz "in response to this possible health and safety threat, the El Paso Field Office is working with CDC and the State Health Department to provide tuberculosis testing for any officer and/or employee at the El Paso Port of Entry who may choose to take the test."



The Juarez businessman was identified as "a frequent border crosser" who "frequently travels by air into the United States," according to the alert issued by the Customs and Border Protection El Paso Field Office Operations Center that included a photo of Mr. Armendariz.



"Subject has a very dangerous and contagious strain of TB," the alert said. "He is a public health threat to others and should be masked and placed in isolation immediately."



The alert also recommended that CBP officers wear masks and rubber gloves "when conducting a personal search" and isolate him among detainees.



The foreign national "flew in the U.S. on Delta Airlines to Atlanta and Salt Lake City, he flew on US Air/Am West to Phoenix. No specific dates were provided just that these flights were in Nov. 2006, Jan. 2007 and May 2007," according to documents obtained by The Washington Times.



Both airlines were asked whether and when they were informed by Homeland Security or CDC officials that the infected foreign national had been a passenger on recent flights or of the possible contamination risks to fellow passengers.



US Airways and Delta Air Lines both declined to answer, citing passenger privacy issues.



"These events are of grave concern regarding the inability of CBP El Paso managers, along with those working with CDC to adequately address the important U.S. homeland security mission against bioterrorism as well," said another DHS official familiar with the incident. "How can we realistically expect them to protect us and the rest of these United States?"



Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, said that people with active infectious tuberculosis should not travel, but studies have shown that transmission is more likely on long-haul flights of eight hours or more.



"To my understanding, all the right effective steps were taken to protect the individual who was infected as well as the public," Dr. Cetron said. "One of the things at the top of my list on this talk is how do we maintain current and accurate information in order to manage infectious disease threats on a global scale from the local, state, national and international jurisdictions in order to protect privacy and prevent the transfer of the illness."



An MDR-TB patient who is not complying with health regulations may be required to undergo supervised treatment for 18 to 24 months to ensure that the complete medical regimen is followed, said Dr. Greg Ciottone, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard University.



"Yes, any person who had close or continued contact with him needs to go in and get tested," Dr. Ciottone said. "If anyone comes in contact with MDR-TB in our hospital, they get tested. MDR-TB is active until you are under full treatment and your tests come back" negative.

Added to Homepage:
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Quote in part:


"Roger Maier, spokesman with El Paso CBP says the delay for issuing a "be on the lookout" (BOLO) alert to stop the man at the border was caused by the traveler's use of an alias."


This is why we need a calling campaign to the Whitehouse and our representives that we do not want any legalization of any illegal. We want them to be at the back of the line and go through medical checks, background checks, and bio-metric information an everyone allowed into the states.

Alias will be the big fraud in the Dream Act too. Let's give this idea to Sessions. We need all the ammo we can get and give to the reps on our side.

Juárez man with drug-resistant TB not contagious
By Diana Washington Valdez / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 10/20/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT


The Juárez man with drug-resistant tuberculosis who reportedly crossed into the U.S. 76 times is not contagious, a doctor supervising his treatment said.
Dr. Esteban Vlasich called the patient, identified by the Associated Press as Amado Isidro Armendariz Amaya, a typical patient.

"We live with these kind of patients every single day," said Vlasich, director of the Binational Tuberculosis Control Prevention Project Juntos, which is funded by the Texas Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"He feels very bad. He's not a criminal. He's an engineer who does consulting for heavy machinery equipment."

This week, U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, asked for an inquiry into the case after the media reported the patient had crossed the border unimpeded many times.

"I am disturbed by the apparent poor coordination between (Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention) and the Department of Homeland Security that allowed a Mexican citizen known to be infected with a highly drug-resistant form of TB to cross the southern border 76 times and board an airplane without detection," Lieberman said in a written statement.

Lieberman and Cornyn want to know why it took six weeks for U.S. border officials to notify the Transportation Security Agency about the man's illness after reportedly being notified April 16 about the case.

U.S. border officials confirmed the man crossed the border 76 times between August 2006 and May 2007, including 21 times between April and May, when he began his treatment with Project Juntos.

The Washington Times newspaper reported that he crossed 52 times at the Zaragoza bridge, 17 times at Bridge of Americas and two times at the Paso del Norte Bridge.

"There were 76 crossings in an almost 10-month period, most at El Paso," said Roger Maier, spokesman for Customs and Border Protection in El Paso.

"The 21 crossings were from April 16, when CBP first issued a bulletin to employees about this person -- although the information was wrong because the man used an alias with Mexican health officials -- until May 31, at which point we received accurate information and updated the lookout," Maier said.

Vlasich confirmed that the patient, who first developed tuberculosis five years ago, has a multi-drug-resistant strain. He is undergoing a two-year treatment plan.

"His last sputum samples, which were sent to Austin (Texas state health laboratory) were negative, and he is not contagious," Vlasich said. "He wears a protective mask at his home. I don't believe he used an alias. I think there was confusion because of his last two names. We knew who we were treating. We use names and dates of birth to identify patients."

In a previous interview, Marie Villa, tuberculosis program manager for the City-County Health and Environmental District, said Juntos partner members discussed the case at a meeting earlier this year.

"The health authorities felt they actually had prevented a tuberculosis crisis through close coordination at the border," she said. "The case involved a Mexican businessman who had come across the border (more than 70 times) before he was stopped. We were told he was self-medicating, and had active and multiple-resistant TB, which is one step from the kind of TB (Andrew Speaker) had."

Speaker, an Atlanta lawyer who had a serious form of tuberculosis, managed to travel to Europe and Canada and back to the United States despite warnings by health officials.

Maier said cross-border travelers from abroad are not required to disclose to U.S. border officials if they have a communicable disease, such as tuberculosis.

Villa said health officials determined that the Juárez engineer did not expose anyone in El Paso to airborne TB bacteria.

"You have to be in an enclosed room with an infected person for six to eight hours to catch the bacteria, and he flew, but his flights averaged 45 minutes, which based on guidelines, is not long enough to endanger others." The Washington Times reported that Amaya boarded a plane at least 11 times an landed at a U.S. location.

Vlasich said the Juárez man was asked not to travel, "but we can't control what the patients actually do."

He also said quarantine in Mexico is more flexible than quarantine in Texas, where patients may be forced to abide by physical limits (stay at home), or be ordered to a quarantine center in San Antonio for treatment.

About 200 tuberculosis patients are being treated in Juárez and El Paso, about a fourth of them on the U.S. side of the border. Fewer than a dozen cases involve multi-drug-resistant strains.

Patients who live in Juárez are treated at a Chihuahua state clinic under Juntos staff supervision, while El Paso patients receive treatment at the City-County Health and Environmental District.

"We've cured 1,000 TB cases since the Juntos Binational Project began," Vlasich said.

El Paso and Juárez have the only binational tuberculosis program, and it was cooperation by both sides that resulted in the Mexican citizen's cross-border travel being curtailed, Villa said.

Dr. Miguel Escobedo, a CDC quarantine station official in El Paso who founded the Juntos Project, was unavailable for comment. The CDC provides funding for the Juntos program.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_7228474