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Many refugees now arriving in the United States are affected by potentially serious communicable ailments. Indeed, since at least 2001, health authorities in Minnesota have known that more than one-third of those in the state with active tuberculosis cases were Somali immigrants. This problem has existed among many other immigrant groups as well, according to a study published by the National Institutes of Health, including patients from “Ethiopia, Laos, Mexico, Vietnam, Mexico, Liberia and India.” Thus, by 2014, 73 percent of tuberculosis cases in Minnesota affected the foreign-born, and approximately two-thirds of TB cases nationally are found among immigrants. Studies undertaken in the summer of 2014 showed rates of tuberculosis were three times as high among Syrians as Jordanians. While these levels have recently been declining, they are well above those found among native-born Americans. The infected may develop the disease later or act as carriers of the bacillus.
Measles has become endemic in Syria, and Syrians show high rates of infection with highly communicable hepatitis A. ...
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