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OUTBREAK:  Leprosy in Arkansas – Brought Here by Whom?

Renee E. Taylor

In an emergency room in Arkansas, the patient exhibits dark red boils, her skin numb. Another case of leprosy in America. Not far away, a tuberculosis-infected illegal immigrant coughs while on break at the local chicken processing plant – spreading his infectious germs across the break room table. His children, also carrying the disease, which had been all but eradicated from the United States years ago, join hundreds of children at the local public school. Crossing the Mexican border, in a pickup truck filled with “migrant workers” coming to “do the jobs Americans don’t do” in our fields and food processing plants, is the Islamic terrorist who purposefully infected himself with smallpox in order to spread the deadly disease to unsuspecting Americans nationwide.

Fact or fiction? Well over 12 million illegal aliens have invaded our country from our southern border, circumventing the strict health requirements that are enforced for those entering legally – requirements that include ensuring the entrants are free from infectious diseases. Our own government continues its push to give them legitimacy, in some cases welcoming them with open arms under the guise of “they are doing the work Americans just don’t do.” However, we don’t know who they are – or what horrific contagions they may have brought with them.

In Northwest Arkansas, the state health department has been tracking nine cases of Marshall Island citizens infected with leprosy. According to a report from KFSM, the CBS affiliate in Fayetteville, Northwest Arkansas has a large population of Marshall Island immigrants who have been brought here to work in the poultry plants in the area. Although, according to Dr. Jennifer Bingham in the KFSM report, leprosy is curable with proper attention to treatment, they are not able to enlist compliance from the patients to complete the process. The report also lists 100 cases of tuberculosis in the Springdale area.

In subsequent reports, the Arkansas Department of Health has downplayed the importance of the outbreak of leprosy in Northwest Arkansas, stating that 95 percent of the population is genetically resistant to the disease. Leprosy is a major concern in the Marshall Islands and with residents from the Marshall Islands being exempt from immigration laws – including medical requirements – it is no small surprise that Northwest Arkansas, with a large concentration of Marshall Island residents working in the poultry plants, is tracking nine cases of the disease. 

In an effort to calm fears of tuberculosis outbreak, the Ft. Smith, Arkansas, Times Record states that in 2007, there were 106 cases of tuberculosis reported statewide, with 21 – nearly a full quarter – in the Northwest Arkansas area. Spread through the inhalation of infected particles from an infected person who coughs, tuberculosis is easier spread than leprosy. Both stories, regardless of the downplaying from government officials, are reason for concern.

Concerns over leprosy in America are not new, but rarely reported. On March 15, 2005, Columbia University’s Columbia News Service published an article by Ben Whitford, titled “Leprosy in America:  New Cause for Concern”.

While leprosy outbreaks in the United States are rare, approximately 130 cases per year, Whitford’s report states that in 2004, 100 cases of leprosy were diagnosed in the United States among the immigrant population. That was double from the year 2000.  Dr. William Levis, head of New York’s Hansen’s Disease Clinic, stated, “It’s creeping into the U.S.”  He is further quoted as calling it an “epidemic” that has already reached such proportions in Texas, New York and California – all states with high populations of immigrants. 

It has become politically incorrect to discuss the possibility of illegal aliens bringing tuberculosis, leprosy and other infectious diseases across the border. This tolerance to the lax policies regarding immigration, appeasement of La Raza and other special interests and the ease in which illegal aliens can blend into American society, leaves us wide open to something far more sinister and deadly – bioterrorism.

Like the economic and health issues regarding illegal immigration that have plagued our nation, the threat of terrorism from our porous southern and northern borders is largely ignored, but a very real possibility. 

After September 11, the possibility of smallpox being used in a bioterror attack became a concern with the Center for Disease Control. Long since eradicated from the U.S., this highly contagious, deadly disease – or any other – can walk across the border with Mohammed as easily as tuberculosis comes with your local tomato picker. 

Tuberculosis, leprosy – an epidemic?  The reality of bioterrorism from our porous borders? The possibilities could cause panic among the population. The news would spread faster than the diseases themselves, therefore the news is controlled, with an apparent goal to downplay concerns. 

People have the right to know that government’s open border policy has put them in danger, for more reasons than one. Don’t believe for a second the cases in Northwest Arkansas are isolated incidences.  This is only the beginning.

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FamilySecurityMatters.org  Contributing Editor Renee Taylor is the editor/webmistress of www.americantruckersatwar.com, a freelance writer, photographer, home schooling mom and publicist for Joey Holiday. A former truck driver, she has devoted promoting the positive image of the American Trucker in in America and in Iraq.  Published on FamilySecurityMatters.org, NewsSarasota.com and others, she has appeared on several national radio programs,  such as The Captains America and The Dave Nemo Program, discussing homeland security and the trucking industry.

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