A physician working to take care of any infected child must treat that child with compassion and appropriate medication. He or she should never provide substandard care or weigh in on the political issue of whether a child should be in this country or how he or she got here.
At the same time, immigrants in poor health or suffering from a communicable illness who enter this country illegally create public health risks. This is why we have such an extensive system for screening the health of legal immigrants in the first place before they are allowed in. It is not a political statement to say that the effectiveness of these screenings is being undermined if hundreds of thousands pass through our borders without them. Whatever the partisan arguments about how this crisis erupted, the most urgent question right now is how to prevent a public health crisis.
HHS told me that the CDC has now activated its Emergency Operations Center to Level III, which means it is on 24-hour alert to better coordinate and track their programs in support of what HHS is calling “the urgent humanitarian situation of unaccompanied children along the southwest border.” But calling it a crisis and working to contain it are two different things. It is clear that the CDC needs to be more involved immediately to help identify, treat, and contain emerging diseases. Putting a cone of secrecy around the health concerns of 50,000 children helps neither those who are sick nor those who are placed at risk.
Marc Siegel, M.D., is a professor of medicine and medical director of Doctor Radio at New York University’s Langone Medical Center.
Article Appeared @http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2014/07/children_crossing_border_illegally_a_possible_public_health_crisis_from.html