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US BEGINS INCREASED TUBERCULOSIS SCREENING OF IMMIGRANTS
Officials from the US Public Health Service have announced new efforts to prevent the spread of tuberculosis in the US, and immigrants are a major focus of these efforts.  The reason for these intensified screening efforts is the combination of rapidly rising rates of TB in developing countries and increasing numbers of immigrants to the US from those countries.  This trend is reflected in TB rates in the US – 42% of the 18,361 cases reported in 1998 occurred in the foreign-born population, which accounts for only 10% of the overall population.  
During the early 1900s, immigrants to the US could be excluded on the basis of disease.  Screenings were conducted as the immigrants passed through ports of entry.  However, the medical science of the time and the speed of immigrant processing resulted in a far from effective screening program, and often, healthy people were excluded.  Today, a thorough medical examination is a requirement to obtain an immigrant visa.  Physicians will initially test for TB by collecting a blood sample from the alien.  About 75% of applicants previously vaccinated against TB will have a false positive reading.  They usually then have to be x-rayed to prove they are not active carriers of TB. 
Because legal immigrants are medically screened before arriving in the US, the Public Health Service has more resources to focus on screening those who enter without documentation.  During 1999, the Public Health Service inspected 150,000 undocumented immigrants who had been apprehended by the INS, and found 126 cases of TB.  The Public Health Service has also begun to install X-ray machines at 19 immigrant detention centers, and has initiated outreach programs in immigrant communities.  Whether a person is legally in the US or not, if the Public Health Service discovers a person with an illness, it will provide the necessary medical treatment.