Disease

Many years ago a young man from Ethiopia came to live with us. He had a number of health problems one of which was TB. Treatment lasts from 9 to 30 months depending on the strain When chickens are raised there are 10 to 20 thousand birds in each grow out building. Because of the closeness they are all given antibiotics to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. With these two disconnected thoughts, consider the plight of immigrants coming from Central America. They are housed in crowded camps where common childhood diseases can easily spread. In Guatemala, the top three causes of death in 2010 were lower respiratory infections, interpersonal violence, and diarrheal diseases. If these people are not kept around long enough for treatment and are released into the general population it poses a health problem. In 2017 a measles outbreak in Minnesota caused considerable concern when 69 cases were diagnosed. These cases were not related to immigrants but they illustrate how even in a country with proper sanitation and health care a problem can arise.