November 2007
Mexican with TB Crossed
U.S. Border 76 Times
hanks
to the incompetence of the Department of Homeland Security
and its lackadasical attitude toward border protection and
immigration law enforcement, unknown hundreds of American
citizens were exposed to a deadly and highly contagious
form of tuberculosis. That's because a Mexican national
infected with deadly drug-resistant TB was allowed to cross
the U.S. border 76 times and permitted to take multiple
domestic airline flights over the past year, according to
a report from the Washington Times.
The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency within the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was warned by health
officials in April that the Mexican businessman who frequently
traveled to the U.S. was infected, but DHS officials took
six weeks to notify its own border inspectors. "Homeland
Security took a further week to tell its own Transportation
Security Agency," the Times reported.
While DHS officials failed to take action, the infected
Juarez businessman, identified by the Times as Amado Isido
Armendariz Amaya, was able to travel back and forth from
Mexico to the U.S. as well as fly on domestic U.S. trips
to Atlanta, Phoenix, Salt Lake, and possibly other cities.
The Times said the man is infected with multiple-drug-resistant
TB (MDR-TB), a highly contagious and deadly disease that
has already claimed the lives of his father and sister in
Chihuahua, according to DHS.
World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines adopted by the
federal Centers for Disease Control, say that "physicians
should inform all MDR-TB patients that they must not travel
by air under any circumstances, or on a flight of any duration
until they are proven" to be disease-free.
Dr. Mario Raviglione, director WHO's TB department, told
the Times that even one single cough could transmit TB to
a fellow travler on an airline where many people in a closed
space are breathing the same air.
The Times reported that the Mexican government has known
for more than five years that the businessman was infected
with MDR-TB. A DHS official who spoke to the Times on condition
of anonymity said "information sharing is still at
an all-time low, if not non-existant, on issues such as
these."
The paper reported that DHS employees were told by higher-ups
that they would be fired if they revealed information to
the public about the cross-border travels of the infected
Mexican.
DHS authorities finally did issue an alert to customs and
border agents, describing the man as "a frequent border
crosser" who "has a very dangerous and contagious
strain of TB. He is a public health threat to others and
should be masked and placed in isolation immediately."
The Times said its reporter asked U.S. Airways and Delta
Airlines, on which the man had flown during trips within
the U.S., whether they were notified by DHS of the health
risks to their American passengers. Both declined to answer.
