Open borders allow deadly narcotics and criminal gangs to invade our country. But there is also a silent killer crossing the border: Tuberculosis.

America’s awakened public health authorities are more concerned with equity—the redistribution of health resources among racial groups—than with keeping a disease that America once nearly eradicated from becoming a threat again.

Reported TB cases increased 34 percent from 2020 to 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and continue to rise.

More than three-quarters of cases are foreign-born people who contracted the disease in their countries of origin or travel through countries with high rates of tuberculosis. The incidence rate of tuberculosis is 60 times higher in Haiti than in America.

In New York City – destination no. 1 for migrants – TB incidence is two and a half times the national average and still rising.

89% of TB patients in the Big Apple are born abroad. The Flushing/Clearview areas of Queens, Sunset Park, Brooklyn and Manhattan’s Lower East Side are the most affected neighborhoods.

The largest national cluster of reported TB cases is in China, according to the city’s latest annual TB summary.

TB is no laughing matter. Globally, it has just overtaken Covid as the biggest infectious disease killer on earth. There is no effective vaccine for it, but most cases—except those that are severely drug-resistant—can be treated with antibiotics, provided they are taken daily without interruption for several months or more. It’s not easy.

Western Europe, Scandinavia and North America all report rising rates of TB as migrants arrive from poorer countries – where TB is common. British health authorities are warning the public about the distinctive cough that comes with tuberculosis.

In Europe, public health authorities are engaged in a heated debate about how to affordably detect TB carriers and prevent them from infecting the local population.

Someone can carry latent TB for years, then suddenly, after resettling in a new country, develop active – and highly contagious – TB and spread it through coughing and sneezing.

In America, however, the mission-confused CDC emphasizes health equity and provides resources to “disproportionately affected” groups.

That’s fine, but how about protecting Americans from the resurgence of a disease they’ve largely eliminated? In all the agency’s reports, not a word about what is causing the increase in TB: an open border.

Immigrants who enter the country legally and apply for green cards are tested for TB with the gamma interferon release test.

Latent carriers are allowed to enter the country and referred to a local health department for follow-up treatment. It’s voluntary and flawed, but better than no screening at all.

Migrants flooding the border illegally or entering on President Biden’s new parole application are not subject to screening. Zip.

The CDC is failing to act on screening and isolating infected people before they bring the disease to towns and cities across the country. The agency is forgetting its “Control and Prevention” mission.

Take the case of a Chinese migrant with active drug-resistant tuberculosis who crossed the border illegally in April. When her symptoms worsened and she was diagnosed on July 23 as “highly positive”, nothing was done to isolate her.

Instead, she was shuffled between immigration processing facilities in California and Louisiana, exposing hundreds.

Now, Louisiana is suing federal authorities to keep the exposed migrants detained until they are medically cleared. State Attorney General Liz Murrill warns of illegals who are “untested for diseases that can threaten the lives of Louisianans and American citizens.”

Thousands of unaccompanied minors with latent TB are being released into communities across the country instead of being held in health and human services shelters for the many months needed to treat them with a course of antibiotics.

CDC data shows a staggering 42 percent increase in the incidence of tuberculosis among children ages 5 to 14 in one year.

On November 1, Senator Lee of Utah called on Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas to take precautions against an invasion of the disease, warning that tuberculosis “is spreading rapidly through the millions of uncontrolled illegal immigrants released into the United States.”

The number of reported cases this year – just under 10,000 – is small, but the trend is worrying. America fought a war against tuberculosis in the 20th century and won. Americans should not surrender to this disease now because of open borders.

Creators.com