HispanicTips » tuberculosis

Burden of HIV/TB infections increasingly falling on Hispanic community

Tomas — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:18:11 +0000

UC San Diego School of Medicine experts recommend binational prevention efforts

The results of an innovative study to understand what factors may influence who contracts tuberculosis (TB)/HIV co-infection in San Diego show a significant shift in the ethnic makeup of the disease, with the majority of cases now coming from the Hispanic community.

The results of this paper, "HIV and Tuberculosis Co-infection Among Hispanics in Southern California: An Increasing Health Disparity," will appear in the February edition of the American Journal of Public Health.

"While the overall numbers are modest, our study shows that what used to be mostly a disease of white and black patients in San Diego is now largely a disease of Hispanics," said Timothy Rodwell MD, PhD, MPH, associate physician/fellow in the Division of Global Public Health at UC San Diego. "This indicates that the benefits of prevention and treatment of TB and HIV over the last decade have been uneven in the different ethnic/racial groups in this region."

HIV is a potent risk factor for TB disease. It increases the risk of latent TB infection reactivation, the rate of disease progression and the risk of new infections. TB also accelerates HIV disease progression, increasing infectivity and reducing HIV treatment efficacy.

"The synergy of TB and HIV has created a worldwide public health crisis and has significantly complicated attempts to eliminate TB in both the industrialized and developing worlds," noted Rodwell.

Rodwell's team analyzed San Diego County TB surveillance data from 1993 through 2007, grouping cases by HIV status: positive, negative or unknown. Of the 5,172 TB cases analyzed, 8.8 percent were also infected with HIV. The number of new co-infected cases did not change significantly during this period, but the proportion of cases among Hispanics did increase significantly, while the proportion of cases among non-Hispanic white and black patients decreased.

Hispanics now account for more than 80 percent of all TB–HIV co-infection cases in the county, further widening existing health disparities in this region. Co-infected patients are significantly more likely to be Hispanic 30 to 49 year-old male injection drug users than any other patient group. Researchers recommend that since the burden of TB and HIV in San Diego has shifted to Hispanics, the disparity must be addressed with focused binational TB and HIV prevention efforts.

Rodwell explained, "With more than 40,000 people crossing the border between Mexico and San Diego on a daily basis, and our finding that the majority of new TB–HIV co-infection cases occurred among Hispanics that were born in Mexico, it is clear that future interventions to address this health disparity will need to be binational in nature."

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Study authors include Timothy C. Rodwell, Richard F.W. Barnes, Steffanie A. Strathdee, and Richard S. Garfein are with the Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego. Marisa Moore is with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stationed at the Tuberculosis Control and Refugee Health Program in the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency, California and Kathleen S. Moser is the director of the Tuberculosis Control and Refugee Health Program in the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency, California. Annie Raich was with the School of Public Health, San Diego State University, California at the time of the study.

This study was supported by the California HIV/AIDS Research Program at the University of California and the National Institutes of Health.

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A Mexican citizen with a potentially deadly form of tuberculosis was allowed to cross the border into El Paso, Texas at least 20 times last year due to poor communication between government agencies, the El Paso Times reported.

Tomas — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:44:27 +0000

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Tuberculosis (TB) outbreak traced to imported Mexican cheese – Southern California

Tomas — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:16:25 +0000

"Researchers have found a potentially deadly strain of tuberculosis infection spreading through Latino communities in Southern California and suspect the disease is being imported from Mexico in unpasteurized cheese.

Health officials in Orange County, though, say they have not seen any cases of the rare strain of tuberculosis in at least five years. They credit a long-running campaign to educate people about the dangers of eating unlabeled cheese and other dairy products."

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez sets out to prove Simón Bolívar was assassinated

Tomas — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:57:23 +0000

"Depressed, disillusioned and in declining health, Simón Bolívar set sail for Santa Marta, Colombia, on Dec. 1, 1830, asking the ship captain to detour into rough waters in hopes that he might get seasick and purge his ill insides.

It didn't work.

Bolívar, a leader of the revolution that freed Colombia and its neighbors from Spanish rule, died in Santa Marta 16 days later. ''It was easy to recognize,'' reported the attending physician after an autopsy, that he died from tuberculosis.

But Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez -- whose devotion to Bolívar knows no bounds -- is questioning that verdict and suggesting he was poisoned by oligarchs in neighboring Colombia -- his main current foe after the United States."

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Civil Rights Group Calls For an “Intervention” to Take Hate Out of The Immigration Debate – NCLR

Tomas — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:42:26 +0000

"Decrying the surge in hate speech and violence that has surrounded the immigration debate, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S., launched a campaign today to end hate speech in the immigration debate and called on presidential candidates and news media networks to divorce themselves from known hate and vigilante groups and to end rhetoric that demonizes immigrants and Hispanic Americans.

"The immigration issue deserves serious debate and serious solutions,” said Janet Murguía, NCLR President and CEO. “We cannot have that debate as long as hate has the floor."

Murguía chastised cable news television for “handing hate a microphone” over the past three years by hosting spokespeople from hate and vigilante groups such as Dan Stein of Federation for American Immigration Reform and Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox of the Minuteman Project more than 110 times, usually identifying them only as “anti-immigration advocates.” She singled out television pundits such as CNN’s Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck and MSNBC political commentator Pat Buchanan for parroting hate speech and driving the immigration debate in a manner that demonizes the Hispanic community.

Presidential candidates who seize on the immigration issue to avoid talking about other issues such as Iraq and the economy also came under fire from Murguía. She faulted them for “amigo shopping,” a derogatory term used by suburban youth who attack and rob day laborers knowing that their victims have little recourse. Murguía specifically called on Mike Huckabee, 2008 presidential candidate and former governor of Arkansas, to renounce the endorsement of, and sever all ties to, Jim Gilchrist, a cofounder of the Minuteman Project and a self-avowed “vigilante.”

“There’s a bully in the room,” said Murguía, “and each of these candidates has a choice. They can stand up to the bully or they can cater to him. It is a question of courage or cowardice. To date, we have seen far too little courage.”

Relying heavily on documentation provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League, Murguía catalogued the rise in the use of code words that label immigrants and Latinos as a threat to the American way of life. She articulated four categories of code words, rhetoric that:

* Refers to immigrants as “an army of invaders” or an “invading force”
* Associates immigrants with animals and refers to them as “a massive horde” or “swarm”
* Accuses immigrants of “bringing crime and disease” to America, including “leprosy, tuberculosis, and malaria” and “gang warfare”
* Purveys the conspiracy theory of “reconquista” or “Atzlán” – the taking back of lands in the southwestern United States for Mexico

(Click here to view a short video reel illustrating some examples www.wecanstopthehate.org.)

NCLR is conducting a campaign to educate Americans about the use of hate speech and the growing rise in violence against Latinos. Called the “Wave of Hope Campaign,” it features:

* An anti-hate website entitled “We can stop the hate ”
* Engaging media networks and candidates to separate themselves from hate groups and hate speech
o This week, NCLR wrote to Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee asking him to renounce the support of, and sever all ties to, Jim Gilchrist.
o NCLR also wrote to three cable news networks – Fox, CNN, and MSNBC – asking to meet with top management about extremists appearing regularly on their programming and ending the hate speech parroted by network news commentators.
* Working with other minority groups to confront hate speech
* Asking candidates to elevate the debate and “pledge” to reject hate speech

Stating that “words have consequences,” Murguía pointed to an FBI report which shows a 23% rise in violence against Latinos. “To the Latino community,” said Murguía, “the surge in hate speech and violence is appalling. But, it should be appalling to everyone.”

Murguía said she recognized that ultimately the power to change the debate lies with the Hispanic community itself. “Latinos buy products from the advertisers supporting these programs,” she said. “Latinos vote in primaries and in the general election. We have a significant role to play picking winners and losers in both arenas. We need to make it clear to those who embrace hate that they do so at their own economic and political peril.”"

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University of California, Davis Immigration Policy Experts Available

Tomas — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:28:34 +0000

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US Could Not Catch Mexican With TB

Tomas — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 22:42:07 +0000

"For the second time this year, the federal government has failed to stop a man infected with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis from traveling in and out of the United States.

U.S. officials this spring were unable to catch a Mexican man infected with the disease because the doctor treating the man did not know his real name, according to a government official who was briefed on the incident but requested anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

In May, an Atlanta lawyer with the disease was able to travel internationally despite warnings from health officials."

Binational Health Week reached out to immigrants

Tomas — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 18:48:46 +0000

"Maria is not her real name, but the woman I have called that told me this story last year as I was administering surveys during Binational Health Week. It's hard to imagine that a doctor in Watsonville would turn away a woman with a broken arm, but that's precisely what Maria believes happened to her.

Since its launch in 2001, the goal of Binational Health Week — which occurred last week — has been to improve the health care of immigrants by providing information about tuberculosis, diabetes, breast cancer and other diseases, and initial health screenings for conditions such as high blood pressure. Increasingly, the goal includes educating immigrants about their rights. Under state law, for example, the hospital Maria visited was required to provide a Spanish translator. More basically, even undocumented immigrants have the right to emergency health care, a right few realize they have."

Twenty-four counties bordering the United States and Mexico would rank among the highest in Hispanic population, federal crimes and tuberculosis if they were a state, a study released Wednesday says.

Tomas — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 15:55:55 +0000

"The 246-page study sponsored by the U.S./Mexico Border Counties Coalition, determines how the counties stretching from San Diego County, Calif., to Cameron County, Texas, would rank compared with the rest of the nation in areas including education, immigration, crime and health care. "Immigration is only one issue that affects the border," said Greg Cox, the coalition's president."

HispanicTips.com is a aggregation blog covering Hispanic-Latino news & commentary. We scour the web and hand-pick these stories and so far have collected 8206 posts. Our goal is to be a useful tool for the varied Hispanic-Latino communities in the US as well as the community as a whole and those interested in these subjects. Read our FAQ for more info.

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U.S. to donate more than U.S.$1 million to Mexican health organizations

Tomas — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 03:12:08 +0000

"The United States will donate more than $1 million to Mexican border health organizations dealing with HIV, tuberculosis and other health problems, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico announced here Tuesday. “The United States has made the global fight against HIV/AIDS a major priority of its foreign policy,” U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza said. “This is not only for humanitarian reasons, but because the spread of HIV threatens the prosperity, stability and development of nations all over the world.”"

HispanicTips.com is a aggregation blog covering Hispanic-Latino news & commentary. We scour the web and hand-pick these stories and so far have collected 8139 posts. Our goal is to be a useful tool for the varied Hispanic-Latino communities in the US as well as the community as a whole and those interested in these subjects. Read our FAQ for more info.

tags: hispanic, latina, latino