http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/tuber ... 37998.html

 

By Stacey Singer Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

 

Updated: 3:16 p.m. Thursday, June 10, 2010

 

Posted: 8:25 p.m. Wednesday, June 9, 2010

 

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Anti-immigrant tirades on the Internet have health officials cringing as they work to contain tuberculosis outbreaks at two Palm Beach County schools.

 

Fair or not, in a year when the public schools absorbed more than 650 Haitian earthquake victims, much of the vitriol about the disease has been directed toward those unfortunate students.

 

Health officials find themselves in a bind, as privacy laws prevent them from answering the anonymous slurs.

 

"I can only acknowledge that the individual has TB. Race, color, creed, birthplace etc. that might identify the individual are confidential," said Palm Beach County Health Department spokesman Tim O'Connor.

 

Into that breach, the rumor mill has taken over. Parents and children at both Seminole Ridge High School in Loxahatchee and Orchard View Elementary in Delray Beach want to know who the ill students are, to assess their children's risk of becoming ill, too. It takes many hours of breathing the same air with a contagious person for TB to spread.

 

As results from skin tests trickle in, some students and parents at Seminole Ridge High School said they thought they knew who brought the multidrug-resistant tuberculosis into their school in May.

 

"Word's gone around that it's some girl who's not from here," said Joey Tooley, 16, repeating the name of a Haitian teenager he doesn't know well. "I had first hour with her, but only for a few days. I have friends who had a lot of classes with her."

 

Angel Portieles has spent days trying to recall whether anyone in his classes coughed a great deal and missed the last week.

 

"I think she might have been in my Spanish class," he said.

 

Miguel Medina said his daughters shared a bus stop with the student he believes is the sick one. He's following the health department's instructions, but choosing not to get worked up.

 

"I am a veteran. I went to Afghanistan, and we went through this three times there," he said.

 

The anonymous Web comments have been more heated, ranging from worried to hate-filled.

 

"Haitian refugees and illegals are carrying all kinds of diseases that we haven't had here in decades," one said.

 

"This is what you get when you open the borders to indigents," said another.

 

"How many Haitians did we let into our country?" asked a third. "I'm sure none were screened at all."

 

Not true, said the health department's O'Connor.

 

First, there is no connection between the TB investigation and his agency's response to the influx of earthquake refugees in January, he said.

 

Second, the Haitian quake refugees who entered the public schools had to meet the same vaccination requirements as all other students, under orders from Palm Beach County Health Department Director Dr. Alina Alonso, he said.

 

"It was Dr. Alonso who said, 'We want them tested, we want them seen, and we want them to have their shots before they start school,' " O'Connor said. "All the refugees, before they entered school, were completely evaluated. All their shots were brought up to date ."

 

O'Connor said some of the workers hired for the H1N1 flu vaccination campaign helped vaccinate the earthquake refugees.

 

The health department is keenly aware that unusual tropical diseases and other germs can migrate to Florida with travelers, whether it's malaria, Dengue fever or tuberculosis, he said.

 

Tuberculosis requires many months of costly drugs to cure, and an organized public health response to ensure that people stay on the drugs, even when side effects are unpleasant.

 

Because of those costs, less-developed nations have more TB. But in an increasingly interconnected world, their problem is also the United States' problem.

I agree, you can't blame the Hatian refugees. Remeber, there was some fancy-pants lawyer from Georgia (I think) that got MDR Tuberculosis. He was diagnosed in Italy and made international headlines when he was ordered to check himself into a hospital in Italy, and he hopped on a plane to get back to the USA. That guy put the entire plane at risk of catching MDR TB just so he could get back to the US.

 

There are way too many ways to get and spread TB. The refugees are probably less likely to be the source for TB, because they've seen a doctor and been screened recently. It's just as likely it was some kid whose parents took him to Brazil, Venezuela, Greece or Israel. Those kids may not, necessarily, have been screened for TB before coming back to school for the year or after winter break.

Treatment is not fun at all, i took INH and Rifampin drug for 9 months and felt like crap. I was given a choice, treatment or deportation :violin:

Ugh - my Grandfather had TB - we had to go wear masks every time we saw him in the hospital. All of my relatives who saw him within a certain period had to get tested to make sure they didn't have it either.