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RECENT REPORT CALLS FOR INCREASED TUBERCULOSIS SCREENING OF IMMIGRANTS
A report recently released by the Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, calls for increased screening of immigrants for tuberculosis as part of an overall effort to eradicate the disease in the US by 2035.  Tuberculosis, which was a major health threat in previous centuries, was almost unknown in the US until recent times.  The disease has made a bit of a comeback as a result of the AIDS crisis, and according to some statistics, immigration is also a cause of rising TB rates in the US.  
According to experts, as much as one-third of the world’s population is infected with the bacteria.  As many as 2-3 million people die each year from the disease.  Not everyone who is infected can spread TB.  However, when the infection becomes active, which occurs in about 10% of those infected, the person can transmit the disease. 
The plan would call for immigrants from certain countries to take a TB skin test, with those who test positive undergoing treatment before being allowed to receive a green card.  The report also calls for tripling the US budget for research into TB, as well as improving public health programs.  It also recommends increasing US aid to countries where the disease is epidemic. 
In 1992, only 27% of TB cases reported in the US occurred in people born outside the country.  In 1999, it was 43%.  17,500 new cases were reported. 
The report calls for testing immigrants from countries where more than 35% of the population is infected with TB.  Some of the counties affected would be Angola, Botswana, Burundi, the Philippines, Vietnam, the Republic of Korea, China, Cambodia and Thailand.  Under the plan, immigrants from Mexico would also be tested, even though less than 35% of the population is infected, because many TB patients in the US are from Mexico. 
The report can be located at: http://www.nationalacademies.org/includes/tb.html