Leprosy and illegal immigrants!

[Dakine 26]

In the past 40 years, the United States registered a total of 900 cases of the feared Biblical disease--leprosy. Virtually unknown to Americans in the last century, leprosy exceeded 7,000 new cases brought in on the backs of newcomers since 2001. Most of the people infected in America are illegal alien immigrants from leprosy hot spots in Mexico, Brazil, the Caribbean and India. "And those are the ones we know about," Dr. William Levis, attending physician at Bellevue Hospital's Hansen's Disease Clinic. "There are probably many, many more." Now known as Hansen's disease, leprosy arrives with immigrants from crowded, poor countries with scant sanitation. However, its new presence in America has caused 11 clinics to sprout up overnight. In the past six years, Levis and his staff have proved that many patients have contracted the disease without leaving the country. A 73 year old man from Queens, New York and a Jewish man from Westchester County, contracted leprosy without leaving the America. As a result, the disease is now officially endemic to the Northeastern United States for the first time, ever. Leprosy's symptoms show in bumpy rashes, skin indentations and loss of feeling in hands and feet. They're usually misdiagnosed because the disease was unheard of in the U.S. until recently. One man who immigrated from Guyana, 47, spent years looking for a doctor to cure him from the red and white splotches on his face and body. When he arrived at the clinic, no one had guessed his condition, which resulted in the loss of one toe and some of the other. Because illegal and legal immigrants are hired into food service, dish washing, cooking, hotels and day care--leprosy finds speedy access across the country. Another bug riding in the bodies of newcomers to America is tuberculosis. In a recent article in the Mother Jones News, Dr. Kevin Patterson, in "THE PATIENT PREDATOR," writes, "Tuberculosis is back, and thanks to globalization, immigration and slipshod treatment, it's deadlier than ever. It kills two million people a year." Dr. Lee Reichman, executive director of New Jersey's Medical Schools National Tuberculosis Center, said, "We sit on the edge of potential catastrophe. Government won't take this problem seriously, doctors don't treat it, and the public thinks TB isn't sexy enough to merit attention. As it spreads, it will get our attention. Unfortunately, the new strains are resistant to all known antibiotics. It'll take at least seven years to develop new drugs." Even legal immigrants don't get screened under the age of 15. They slip under the radar. However, it's the illegal aliens creating the crisis. Strains of TB once only found in Mexico have moved into Border States of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Since three years ago, 16,000 people living in the US developed TB. In 2001, nearly 40 percent of MDR TB cases were in New York and California. To show you how fast TB spreads; one infected illegal alien will infect between 10 to 50 Americansâ€"depending on his or her public contact. If that illegal alien has children, now numbering over 1.1 million illegal alien kids in U.S. schools, your kids are at risk. In the Santa Barbara News Press on April 25, 2004, the lead story titled, "Anatomy of an Outbreak" recorded that one illegal alien had spread his TB to 56 other people in the area. If you stand in line at K-Mart, Krogers, Safeway, Target, Sears, eat at fast food or go to the movies, you are inches away from those carrying the disease. If they sneeze, cough, laugh or touch your food, you and your children are at risk. To date, over 15 million illegal aliens walk around in our communities across America. We know that 16,000 of them carry TB. How many live in your community and won't go to the hospital for fear of being caught? TB won't stay put for long. It's found in overcrowded city conditions, but again, immigrants take jobs in the travel and fast foods industry. One illegal in Denver last fall at a fast food restaurant affected over 1000 patrons with Hepatitis A. No telling how many he would have infected if he carried TB or leprosy. Is anyone talking about it? Yes and no. Dr. Reichman's assistant, Rebecca Stevens calls on patients, but she, too contracted the disease. But most public officials turn a deaf ear toward more 'important' matters such as war and terror since 9/11. Where does that leave average American citizens? Simple. You are at risk and it's growing daily with 4.1 million newcomers (three million illegally and 1.1 million legally) each year according to the Center for Immigration Studies. I remember my travels in Asia to leper colonies where the disease 'creeps' over the body until the person is engulfed in puffy indentations. It made my own skin crawl. Not to be outdone, another disease makes its way across our borders. In South America, Chagas Disease is a T-cruzi parasite that infects 14 million people. It's called the "Kiss of Death" because it's spread by the kissing bug and kills 50,000 annually. Desperate South and Central Americans crash our borders while carrying the disease in their blood streams. It attacks the heart and other organs. It can't be detected. When they give blood in Los Angeles and Miami, they contaminate our blood supplies. Nine deaths are confirmed in the last year. Three deaths came from heart transplant recipients. They not only got a new heart, they suffered death from the parasite in the transfusion. Can you do anything? Most Americans sit, watch, wait and listen until personally affected. By then, it's too late. As you can see, our Congress does nothing and our president works to open the borders to more illegal alien migration. For those who want to take preemptive action, it's time to call, write your senators that you want our border secured with troops and you want deportation of illegal aliensâ€"slowly, methodically and surely. Call your local TV and radio station and demand attention be paid to this crisis. Write me at my email for an action letter of the points you can take to stop this nightmare. Once illegal aliens arrive, along with TB, leprosy, Chagas Disease, hepatitis, head lice and AIDS, it becomes our problem. The more extreme illegal alien numbers the more extreme our childrens' consequences.

Another site!

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...751C1A965948260

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Paragraphs are your friend.

[Sinergy 3]

[natty bumppo 297]

is there an encryption code to decipher this ?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

is there an encryption code to decipher this ?

Yes. It's called going back to the original source and reposting the text, with formatting.

Note the date of the article - December 4, 1983 It's 25 years old!

December 4, 1983

IMMIGRATION BRINGING MORE LEPROSY TO U.S.

AP

Carlos immigrated from Mexico in 1969, married and fathered two sons, now 6 and 11 years old. But he keeps a secret from his boys: Carlos has leprosy.

''Sometimes I think they may catch it,'' he said. ''I want to leave them free, without problems. They have all of life ahead of them.''

Carlos, who asked that his real name not be used, is typical of leprosy victims in the United States. He works full time, is raising a family, poses almost no threat of infecting anyone but relatives and suffers few symptoms other than occasional pain in his legs and a few subtle spots on his body.

Leprosy, the disfiguring scourge of the skin most associated with exotic lands and Bible stories, is increasing because of immigration from Southeast Asia and Latin America.

''These people come to the United States and bring their disease with them,'' said Dr. Thomas Rea, a dermatologist at the University of Southern California who treats Carlos and 400 other leprosy patients at County-U.S.C. Medical Center. A Little-Understood Disease

Leprosy, also named Hansen's disease, for the Norwegian doctor who discovered leprosy bacteria in 1873, is a little-understood disease that over a period of many years attacks body tissue, especially skin and nerves. If untreated, it can lead to spots or sores on the body, nerve pain, accidental hand and foot mutilation stemming from victims' inability to feel pain through damaged nerves, and even death from complications.

In the first nine and a half months of this year, 193 cases of leprosy were newly reported in the United States, as against 160 in the same period of 1982, said Dr. Charles Shepard, chief of the leprosy section at the Federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

With the exception of a few years, the number of leprosy cases reported in the United States has increased annually, more than doubling from 103 in 1963 to 231 in 1982, he said. There are 4,000 to 5,000 leprosy patients in America and 11 million worldwide, most in India and Southeast Asia.

''The increased incidence is due entirely to imported cases,'' said Dr. Robert Jacobson, clinical chief for the United States Public Health Service's leprosy facility in Carville, La.

Most of the new cases this year were reported in areas that receive the most immigrants from Southeast Asia and Latin America: 58 in California, 28 in Hawaii, 27 in Texas, 24 in New York City, 15 in Washington State, 9 in Arizona and 6 in Florida.

Dr. Shepard, Dr. Rea and other experts say that, despite public fears about leprosy, the disease is only mildly contagious.

Carlos, whose three siblings in Mexico also have leprosy, works as a restaurant busboy. Dr. Rea says that ''doesn't present any problem - that's not the sort of contact that seems important.'' No Risk With Treatment

''When patients are treated, they pose no risk of infecting anyone else,'' says Gilbert Gibson, who manages Seton Medical Center in Daly City, a leprosy clinic in northern California.

The milder form of leprosy either disappears spontaneously or can be cured with drugs, while the more severe form, which Carlos has, can be arrested with drugs.

While leprosy is relatively common in many of the immigrants' home countries, it is endemic in only two parts of the United States, the Gulf Coast of Texas and scattered areas of Louisiana, where it was brought in the 1700's by French Canadian pioneers. In those areas there are fewer cases each year among nonimmigrants.

Experts speculate that leprosy is linked to poverty, cramped housing, poor nutrition and possibly heredity.

Dr. Rea called the rise in American leprosy cases an ''opportunity'' because leprosy might be linked to a malfunction of the body's immune system. ''If we understand more about how this abnormal immune regulation comes about in leprosy, we might get a much better idea of how it comes about in cancer and arthritis,'' he said.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Oh wait, the original article and the URL at the bottom are different.

The original article is unsourced.

[merijan 0]

I think its yet another article to keep our minds busy and afraid. So we dont pay attention to what is really going on in our USA .

[Sassy1natl 0]

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

is there an encryption code to decipher this ?

Welcome to the matrix.

[peejay 327]

Yes...one of the myriad of reasons among many why open borders and illegal immigration suck.

Illegal aliens get no medical screening prior to entering the USA illegally. Many illegal aliens come from regions of the world that have large untreated populations that have or carry these diseases.

Cheap labor isn't so cheap...is it?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Lepers!!! O....M....G!!!! Quick! Ship them to Alcatraz lest we all be infected!

Unclean! Unclean!

[Mags 112]

Leprosy CAN be cured. It just takes longer in the more heavily affected patents. After only a couple of days a leprosy patient, who is receiving treatment, is no longer contagious and it takes YEARS before bits of your body start dropping off!

There are many more diseases you should worry about before leprosy!

Edited August 9, 2008 by Magenta

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

in other news, i'm are watching the leprosy hockey league on tv and there's a face off in the corner......

[natty bumppo 297]

in other news, i'm are watching the leprosy hockey league on tv and there's a face off in the corner......

and over on the basketball channel ... they're ready for the opening tip off ....

[Mags 112]

I can see the direction this thread is taking....