Leprosy & Other Diseases On Rise In U.S....Immigrants To Blame Says Study
 

I don't know if any of you are hip to what Leprosy is, but it's got to be the most gad awful disease ever. It's literally 'rotting to death'. Well it's on the rise fast in the U.S. amongst other diseases and this story is just one of many that broke today. Blame goes to immigration and treatment.. I have this strange feeling we're gonna see a massive border crackdown like a mother fucker soon. Especially with that info about bird flu headin' our way.

Good news is everyone will be so scared they'll stay home and surf porn.
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Leprosy 'Endemic' In America?
Posted on Thursday, May 26 @ 00:50:02 PDT by Intellpuke (8 reads)

The number of cases of leprosy, now known as Hansen's disease, among immigrants to the U.S. has more than doubled since 2000, according to a news report from Columbia University.


While the overall figure is small compared to other countries, some researchers fear the trend could lead to the disease spreading to the U.S.-born population.



"It's creeping into the U.S.," Dr. William Levis, head of the New York Hansen's Disease Clinic, told Columbia News Service. "This is a real phenomenon. It's a public health threat. New York is endemic now, and nobody's noticed."



Levis thinks America could be on the verge of an epidemic.



"We just don't know when these epidemics are going to occur," he said, "but we're on the cusp of it here, because we're starting to see endemic cases that we didn't see 25 years ago."





According to Steve Pfeifer, head of statistics and epidemiology at the National Hansen's Disease Program, only about two dozen new cases are found each year in U.S.-born patients, with that number remaining stable for decades.



Pfeifer suggests many immigrants are coming to the U.S. specifically to get treated for their skin condition, due to the short time between many immigrants' entry to the U.S. and their diagnosis with leprosy.



"They're coming to be treated because they get treatment free and probably get better treatment here," he told Columbia. "Somebody down there diagnoses them and says, 'Hey, you've got leprosy, and your best course of action is probably high-tailing to the U.S.'"



The fear is that since the disease remains contagious until treatment is commenced, a surge of diagnosed-but-untreated patients could mean a spread of leprosy into the population of America.



Pfeifer said he had not issued an official report on the dangerous trend, fearing that anti-immigration groups would become vocal against centers providing free health care for illegals.



"A lot of our cases are imported," said Dr. Terry Williams, who treats leprosy victims in Houston, Texas. "We see patients from everywhere ? Africa, the Philippines, China, South America."



Williams confirms that some of his patients came to the U.S. specifically for treatment, telling Columbia, "Certainly we do see some of that. We've had even a couple of patients from Cuba who were put on a boat by Castro just to get them out of the country ? they made their way here through Mexico and Central America basically just to get treated. ... We treat them; our job isn't to be immigration police."



Not all experts have such a gloomy outlook.



Dr. Denis Daumerie, head of the World Health Organization's leprosy-elimination program, thinks claims of immigrants causing a spike in U.S. leprosy are overstated.



"There is no risk of an epidemic of leprosy," he told Columbia. "There's absolutely no risk that the few immigrants who are affected by the disease, if they are diagnosed and treated, will spread the disease in the U.S."



Intellpuke: "You can read more of this WorldNetDaily article, here.



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Tancredo for President 2008
Last hope to save America

I wonder what the number of immigrants that have this, came with a visa. Or are they just planning on pointing the finger at the mexico border again??