Photo by: Marco Ugarte
A migrant child smiles as he waits to be treated for an unknown infection on his body at the Jesus del Buen Pastor del Pobre y el Migrante shelter, in Tapachula, Mexico, Saturday, June 1, 2019. President Donald Trump threatened a 5% tariff on Mexican imports unless America’s southern neighbor cracked down on Central American migrants trying to cross the U.S. border. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte) ** FILE **

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

We all know about the unfolding humanitarian disaster at the border and its aftermath. Besides the general chaos, the inherent danger faced by those migrating encompasses sex trafficking, sex assaults and the disruption of lives brought by thousand-mile treks through dangerous environments.

But that’s not all. We are now in a world where infectious diseases, some like measles thought eradicated, have returned and are spreading globally. Understandably, we keep hearing from the government that vaccines are imperative. Whether you have been vaccinated or not, the call is now for everyone to make sure they’re immune through blood tests or additional shots. That’s the right response.

But what the federal government hasn’t told you is that during this dangerous time requiring admonitions that vaccines are imperative, there is no requirement for proof of vaccination for anyone entering this country except for those migrating legally.

The team at Independent Women’s Voice, of which I’m president, has discovered through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that while the government requires proof of vaccination from those seeking to migrate, there is no similar requirement for people visiting on non-immigrant visas — and that is through ports we control.

With the southern border being overwhelmed with 100,000 people a month being apprehended attempting to enter illegally, there is no ability to enforce any sort of massive health check. The border patrol does its best to notice who may be showing symptoms of illness, but there’s nothing to be done about those who are unaware they’re ill with no obvious indications of sickness.

As of May 31, we have 981 cases of measles in 26 states. For a disease we thought eradicated, we are now on track to surpass 1,000 this week, eclipsing the previous record in 1994, which reported 963 for the entire year.

Then we have infectious diseases with no vaccine or cure. Last week, Customs and Border Protection announced “U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the Del Rio Station apprehended a large group of 116 individuals Thursday. … ‘This large group from Africa further demonstrates the complexity and severity of the border security and humanitarian crisis at our Southwest border,’ said Chief Raul Ortiz. This is the first large group apprehended in the Del Rio Sector and the first large group of people from Africa — including nationals from Angola, Cameroon and Congo — apprehended on the Southwest border this year.”

Congo is experiencing the worst Ebola outbreak in recent memory, with more than 2,000 confirmed cases and over 1,300 fatalities since late August.

Zika also remains an issue. In Brazil, more than 19,000 cases were reported there last year. Immigrants, legal and illegal, and visitors are coming from countries beset with measles, yellow fever, Zika, Ebola, typhoid fever, mumps, cholera, etc.

USA Today reported this week, “Since the beginning of fiscal year 2019, which began Oct. 1, 2018, agents across the U.S.-Mexican border have apprehended more than 27,000 people from 37 countries other than Mexico, according to Border Patrol statistics. Del Rio Sector’s apprehensions of non-Mexican migrants this year has increased by nearly 500% over the same period in fiscal year 2018.”

The CDC warns, “The large movement of people across the United States and Mexico border has led to an increase in health issues, particularly infectious diseases such as tuberculosis.”

Infectious diseases are an equal opportunity scourge. The catastrophe at the border is a humanitarian one at every level, which does not discriminate. It puts U.S. families at risk, but also in as much danger, if not even more, are the migrant families themselves caught in a vortex encouraged by cynical American politicians who believe it will pay political dividends as they attack and stop efforts of the Trump administration to address and manage the crisis.

We hear arguments that attempting to control the border and stop the chaos at the border is racist or xenophobic. The opposite is true. The fact is, allowing this to continue because Democrats remain obsessed with political vengeance against the president first harms those migrating. To not secure the border and manage immigration is the abandonment of people seeking a better life in this country. Measles, tuberculosis, typhus, the mysterious polio-like virus striking children and Zika, are active in this country.

Yet, if a migrant manages to escape the caravans unscathed, they travel to the interior of the country, where social services are overwhelmed as cities face the influx of tens of thousands of migrants. This collapse of assistance infrastructure forces many to sleep on the street or in tent cities where disease and infection spread.

Something must be done. IWV.org has launched a petition for the White House asking the administration to redouble its efforts to secure the border using every method possible, while asking the CDC to expand the rule requiring proof of vaccination to everyone entering the country legally. The situation at the border is chaos, but to not require proof of vaccination at ports we control, like the airports, is madness as infectious diseases, both curable and incurable, remain an issue.

Far worse than ever before, we face an urgent infectious disease threat to public health for both U.S. citizens and unvaccinated or at-risk (the very young, elderly, immune-compromised) immigrants themselves. This is not a political issue. If we are serious about saving lives and stopping a humanitarian crisis affecting citizen and migrant alike, securing the border and requiring proof of vaccination for everyone entering the country legally must be done.

• Tammy Bruce, president of Independent Women’s Voice, author and Fox News contributor, is a radio talk-show host.

Source: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jun/6/americans-facing-threat-of-infectious-diseases-at-/

The post Americans facing threat of infectious diseases at the border first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

A WHO expert committee declined on three previous occasions to advise the United Nations health agency to make the declaration for this outbreak, even though other experts say it has long met the required conditions. More than 1,600 people have died since August in the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, which is unfolding in a region described as a war zone.

A declaration of a global health emergency often brings greater international attention and aid, along with concerns that nervous governments might overreact with border closures.

The declaration comes days after a single case was confirmed in Goma, a major regional crossroads in northeastern Congo on the Rwandan border, with an international airport. Also, a sick Congolese fish trader traveled to Uganda and back while symptomatic — and later died of Ebola.

While the risk of regional spread remains high, the risk outside the region remains low, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said after the announcement in Geneva.

The international emergency “should not be used to stigmatize or penalize the very people who are most in need of our help,” he said. Tedros insisted that the declaration was not made to raise more money — even though WHO estimated “hundreds of millions” of dollars would be needed to stop the epidemic.

Dr. Joanne Liu, president of Doctors Without Borders, said she hoped the emergency designation would prompt a radical reset of Ebola response efforts.

“The reality check is that a year into the epidemic, it’s still not under control, and we are not where we should be,” she said. “We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results.”

Liu said vaccination strategies should be broadened and that more efforts should be made to build trust within communities.

The U.S. Agency for International Development applauded the WHO decision and said USAID officials would “continue to scale up life-saving support” to end the outbreak.

This is the fifth such declaration in history. Previous emergencies were declared for the devastating 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,000 people, the emergence of Zika in the Americas, the swine flu pandemic and polio.

WHO defines a global emergency as an “extraordinary event” that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response. Last month, the outbreak spilled across the border for the first time when a family brought the virus into Uganda after attending the burial in Congo of an infected relative. Even then, the expert committee advised against a declaration.

Alexandra Phelan, a global health expert at Georgetown University Law Center, said Wednesday’s declaration was long overdue.

“This essentially serves as a call to the international community that they have to step up appropriate financial and technical support,” she said but warned that countries should be wary of imposing travel or trade restrictions.

Such restrictions “would actually restrict the flow of goods and health care workers into affected countries so they are counterproductive,” she said. Future emergency declarations might be perceived as punishment and “might result in other countries not reporting outbreaks in the future, which puts us all at greater risk.”

WHO had been heavily criticized for its sluggish response to the West Africa outbreak, which it repeatedly declined to declare a global emergency until the virus was spreading explosively in three countries and nearly 1,000 people were dead. Internal documents later showed WHO held off partly out of fear a declaration would anger the countries involved and hurt their economies.

The organization’s emergency committee will meet again within three months to assess the situation. Committee members will review whether the outbreak is still a global emergency and whether other measures are needed.

Wednesday’s announcement prompted fear in eastern Congo, where many do business across borders and travel overseas.

“I am vaccinated and I protect myself against Ebola,” said Zoe Kibwana, a 46-year-old shoe salesman who does business in Uganda, just 70 kilometers (40 miles) from Beni. “Closing the borders would handicap our economy. The health ministry and WHO need to end this epidemic as soon as possible.”

The current outbreak is spreading in a turbulent Congo border region where dozens of rebel groups are active and where Ebola had not been experienced before. Efforts to contain the virus have been hurt by mistrust among wary locals that has prompted deadly attacks on health workers. Some infected people have deliberately evaded health authorities.

The pastor who brought Ebola to Goma used several fake names to conceal his identity on his way to the city, Congolese officials said. WHO on Tuesday said the man had died and health workers were scrambling to trace dozens of his contacts, including those who had traveled on the same bus.

Congo’s minister of health resisted the characterization of the outbreak as a health emergency.

“We accept the decision of the committee of experts but one hopes that it’s a decision that wasn’t made under pressure of certain groups that want to use this as a way to raise funds for certain humanitarian actors,” said Dr. Oly Ilunga.

Those working in the field say the outbreak is clearly taking a turn for the worse despite advances that include the widespread use of an experimental but effective Ebola vaccine.

Dr. Maurice Kakule was one of the first people to survive the current outbreak after he fell ill while treating a woman last July before the outbreak had even been declared.

“What is clear is that Ebola is an emergency because the epidemic persists despite every possible effort to educate people,” he told the Geneva meeting.

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Cheng reported from London. Associated Press writers Krista Larson and Al-Hadji Kudra Maliro in Beni, Congo, and Saleh Mwanamilongo in Kinshasa, Congo, also contributed to this report.

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Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

Source: https://wtop.com/national/2019/07/ebola-outbreak-in-congo-declared-a-global-health-emergency/

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