According to Kenneth J. Wolfe, deputy director of public affairs for the Administration for Children and Families at Health and Human Services, children who enter the HHS unaccompanied alien children program are given a well-child exam and vaccinations against communicable diseases. They are also screened for TB and mental health problems, and placed in quarantine or special facilities as needed.
But health care workers at these cramped, overwhelmed centers have not been speaking to the news media, so it is difficult to know exactly which diseases have appeared and how many cases there are. Large outbreaks have been reported of scabies, a highly contagious, intensely itchy rash spread by tiny insects called mites.
A senior spokesman for CDC told me that HHS is taking the lead in providing medical services for these centers in southwest Texas and Arizona. When a case of H1N1 swine flu was diagnosed in late June, 2,000 flu vaccines were flown in. Since it takes two to three weeks for a vaccine to confer protection, more cases of flu are likely within the centers. It is also possible that the disease will spread to the local community and beyond.