Contagion invasion: What ever happened to the principle of protecting our borders against dangerous diseases?

Keeping Americans safe from dangerous diseases was a solemn duty adhered to with the upmost meticulousness since our colonial times. When our federal government began assuming control over immigration, weeding out contagious diseases was the quintessential application of the “few and defined” powers of the federal government against “external” threats that James Madison envisioned as the entire purpose of a federal government in Federalist #45. Has that principle been upended in the era of political correctness?...

One need not be a health care or public policy expert to recognize the clear and present danger of up to one million migrants entering our country in a year from some of the most disease-prone parts of the world – with many of them being released into our communities within hours of arriving.... 

Let’s start with the Northern Triangle countries because that is the source of the majority of migrants. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), “Dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses cause mosquito-borne infections of increasing concern in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.” These are diseases for which there are no vaccinations to prevent. A humanitarian brigade under the U.S. Southern Command was in Honduras this month treating locals for these very diseases.

Scabies, lice, and malaria are other diseases where we have no vaccines for which to defend against, yet the former two have been very common among those surrendering to border agents, while malaria is “endemic” to the area, according to CDC.

CDC further found that these countries are at “high risk for neglected tropical diseases,” with over one million children being treated each year for soil-transmitted helminths in Guatemala and Honduras. Central America experiences at least 200,000 cases of Chagas a year, a disease that is “the most common cause of nonischemic heart disease in Central America and may cause cardiomyopathy years after initial infection.”

Then there are those diseases prevalent in these countries for which there are vaccines, but it’s almost certain a large percentage of these migrants are not vaccinated. They include chicken pox, tuberculosis, measles, mumps, pertussis, and rubella. Military officials have also found Hepatitis A to be prevalent in El Salvador. Last September, the Honduran Ministry of Health declared a medical state of emergency after at least 5,000 incidents of mumps were reported. That was right before the largest migrant caravan left from Honduras.

According to the Tijuana Health Department, one-third of the caravan migrants who stayed in the region were treated for health issues, including tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, chicken pox, lice, skin infections, and hepatitis. One Honduran migrant on her way in a caravan just spoke to the Associated Press and revealed she has HIV.

We already know that TB has been a longstanding problem from these parts of the world and have most likely been the source of the resurgence of TB in this country after having previously eradicated it. Guatemalans are 83 times more likely to have tuberculosis than Americans and seven times more likely than legal immigrants, according to the CDC....

Continued in Contagion invasion (Part 2): The untold public health endemic at our borders and beyond, by Daniel Horowitz, Conservative Review, April 20, 2019: