Open AccessJournal Article
Does Fear of Immigration Authorities Deter Tuberculosis Patients from Seeking Care
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TL;DR: Any legislation that increases undocumented immigrants' fear that health care professionals will report them to immigration authorities may exacerbate the current tuberculosis epidemic.
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Abstract: Physician groups are concerned that legislation requiring physicians to report illegal immigrants to immigration authorities will delay curative care. In particular, patients with tuberculosis may delay seeking care for infectious symptoms and spread the disease. We surveyed 313 consecutive patients with active tuberculosis from 95 different facilities to examine the relationship of immigration-related variables, symptoms, and delay in seeking care. Most patients (71%) sought care for symptoms rather than as a result of the efforts of public health personnel to screen high-risk groups or to trace contacts of infectious persons. At least 20% of respondents lacked legal documents allowing them to reside in the United States. Few (6%) feared that going to a physician might lead to trouble with immigration authorities. Those who did were almost 4 times as likely to delay seeking care for more than 2 months, a period of time likely to result in disease transmission. Patients potentially exposed an average of 10 domestic and workplace contacts during the course of the delay. Any legislation that increases undocumented immigrants' fear that health care professionals will report them to immigration authorities may exacerbate the current tuberculosis epidemic.
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Citations
Barriers to health care for undocumented immigrants: a literature review.
TL;DR: Recommendations identified in the papers reviewed included advocating for policy change to increase access to health care for undocumented immigrants, providing novel insurance options, expanding safety net services, training providers to better care for immigrant populations, and educating undocumented immigrants on navigating the system.
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
Nicole M. Smith,Joseph Bresee,David K. Shay,Timothy M. Uyeki,N. Cox,R. A. Strikas +5 more
- 01 Mar 2011
TL;DR: Variation in disease prevalence and use of eye care among individual states and also among racial/ ethnic populations and age groups within the five states combined suggests that statespecific surveillance of visual impairment and eye care and investigation by states to identify influencing factors might lead to creation of vision programs better suited to individual state needs.
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The Epidemiology of Tuberculosis among Foreign-Born Persons in the United States, 1986 to 1993
TL;DR: Immigration has had an increasingly important effect on the epidemiology of tuberculosis in the United States and it will be difficult to eliminate tuberculosis without better efforts to prevent and control it among immigrants and greater efforts to control it in the countries from which they come.
361
•Journal Article
Controlling tuberculosis in the United States. Recommendations from the American Thoracic Society, CDC, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
TL;DR: In this statement, the American Thoracic Society, CDC, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America propose recommendations to improve the control and prevention of TB in the United States and to progress toward its elimination.
Variations in healthcare access and utilization among Mexican immigrants: the role of documentation status.
Arturo Vargas Bustamante,Hai Fang,Jeremiah R. Garza,Olivia Carter-Pokras,Steven P. Wallace,John A. Rizzo,Alexander N. Ortega +6 more
TL;DR: This study shows that undocumented immigrants from Mexico are much less likely to have a physician visit in the previous year and a usual source of care compared to documented immigrants fromMexico.
References
The Epidemiology of Tuberculosis in San Francisco -- A Population-Based Study Using Conventional and Molecular Methods
Peter M. Small,Philip C. Hopewell,Samir P. Singh,Antonio Paz,Julie Parsonnet,Delaney C. Ruston,Gisela F. Schecter,Charles L. Daley,Gary K. Schoolnik +8 more
TL;DR: Analysis of M. tuberculosis isolates from all patients reported to the tuberculosis registry in San Francisco during 1991 and 1992 confirmed that poorly compliant patients with infectious tuberculosis have a substantial adverse effect on the control of this disease.
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Access to medical care in the U.S.: realized and potential.
Ronald M. Andersen,Lu Ann Aday +1 more
TL;DR: The results suggest services are generally equitably distributed since age and level of illness are the main determinants of the number of services people receive, however, remaining inequities might be reduced by providing people who report no regular source of medical care with a familiar entry into the health service system.
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Access to medical care for black and white Americans. A matter of continuing concern.
TL;DR: Black Americans compared with whites are less likely to be satisfied with the qualitative ways their physicians treat them when they are ill, more dissatisfied with the care they receive when hospitalized, and more likely to believe that the duration of their hospitalizations is too short.
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Infectivity of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in inner city homes.
TL;DR: It is believed that both factors, loss of infectivity after initiation of chemotherapy and previous infection of the more susceptible contacts, were operative.
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