title: ALARMING: 22% OF REFUGEES In Minnesota Test POSITIVE For TB
text: Nothing to see here. Just keep flying them in, our FREE tax-payer funded Healthcare system will take care of them at least the ones who are willing to submit to the rigorous treatments required to cure the dangerous disease TB is an airborne infectious disease caused by bacteria that spreads through the air, person to person, when someone coughs or sneezes. One in three people worldwide have latent TB, according to the World Health Organization. In the United States, up to 13 million people have been exposed to TB and could develop the disease.Every year, tuberculosis claims 1.5 million lives worldwide and 500 to 600 in this country. Tuberculosis (TB) has surpassed HIV as the leading cause of death from infectious disease worldwide,  the Minnesota Department of Health reports.One of every five refugees resettled in Minnesota by the federal government tested positive for latent tuberculosis in 2014, according to the state s Department of Health. Only 4 percent of the general population in the United States tested positive for latent tuberculosis in the most recent report provided by the Centers for Disease Control.The April 2016 edition of the Refugee Health Quarterly, published by the Minnesota Department of Health reports that:Minnesota had 150 cases of TB in 2015, compared to 147 cases in 2014 (a 2 percent increase). The most common risk factor for TB cases in Minnesota is being from a country where TB is common.TB screening is offered to all refugees during the domestic refugee health exam.In 2014, 22 percent of refugees screened tested positive for LTBI (latent tuberculosis infection).26 percent of all foreign born cases of tuberculosis in Minnesota were from people born in Somalia. Somalians almost exclusively enter the state through the refugee resettlement program.More than 70,000 refugees have been resettled in the United States annually for the past three decades by the federal government. It s not just tuberculosis being brought in by these resettled refugees. Measles, whooping cough, diptheria, and other diseases that were on their way to eradication are also coming in across the borders of the United States.A recent outbreak of measles in Memphis, Tennessee, a center for refugee resettlement, began at a local mosque, as Breitbart News reported previously.The alarming public health report from Minnesota comes on the heels of news from the Centers for Disease Control that in 2015, the incidence of tuberculosis in the United States increased. Data from 2015 show that the number of TB cases has increased (by 1.7 percent) nationally [in the United States] for the first time in 23 years, with a total of 9,563 TB cases reported,  the Minnesota Department of Health reports.As the Star Tribune, Minnesota s largest daily newspaper, reports:The CDC is still trying to determine the reason for the uptick.The goal set by the CDC, in 1989, of eliminating TB by 2010   defined as less than one case in a million people   remains elusive. Even if the trend of declining cases had continued, the United States would not have eliminated TB by the end of this century, the CDC said. We are not yet certain why TB incidence has leveled off, but we do know it indicates the need for a new, expanded approach to TB elimination,  said Dr. Philip LoBue, director of the CDC s Division of Tuberculosis Elimination, in an email.A dual approach is needed: continue to find and treat cases of disease and evaluate their contacts, as well as identify and evaluate other high-risk persons for latent TB infection, he said.There may be a positive correlation between the increase in the number of refugees resettled in the United States during this period and the sudden increase in the incidence of tuberculosis, a disease that many thought was on the path to eradication in the United States.As the Centers for Disease Control report:In 2014, a total of 66% of reported TB cases in the United States occurred among foreign-born persons. The case rate among foreign-born persons (15.4 cases per 100,000 persons) in 2014 was approximately 13 times higher than among U.S.-born persons (1.2 cases per 100,000 persons). Today four states   California, New York, Texas and Florida   have more than half the nation s active TB cases, though they have only a third of the country s population. The four states have the highest numbers of foreign-born residents,  according to the Star Tribune.A person with latent tuberculosis is not infectious and does not have symptoms of the disease. A person with active tuberculosis is infectious and has symptoms of the disease.Ten percent of those with latent tuberculosis develop active tuberculosis if not treated, according to the World Health Organization.As the Star Tribune reports: Tuberculosis is airborne and can be spread when a person active tuberculosis coughs, sneezes, or otherwise transmits the infection to a previously uninfected individual.Treatment for tuberculosis is long and expensive. If caught early, it typically takes about nine months for a person with active tuberculosis to improve to latent tuberculosis. Not everyone diagnosed with active tuberculosis, however, improves. Mortality rates for those with active tuberculosis are much higher than health professionals would like, even in the United States.For entire story: Breitbart News