The thousands of people waiting to cross the border from Mexico to the United States are not only coming from Mexico and Central America, they’re also coming from Africa, Haiti, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. With them, they bring the diseases from their countries of origin. Many of them are being processed and checked for deadly diseases, but what about the thousands who are sneaking across our open borders?
Last week, the World Health Organization began to ring the alarm bells over a recent spike in cases of the deadly Ebola virus.
On Friday, ABC News reported that the World Health Organization is claiming the Ebola outbreak in the Congo is of “deep concern, ” while stopping short of declaring it a global emergency.
Following a meeting of its expert committee, the U.N. health agency called for efforts to be redoubled to stop the deadly virus, noting that the recent spike in Ebola cases raises the risk of spread to other countries.
The outbreak announced on Aug. 1 has become the second-deadliest in history, behind the West African one from 2014-16 that killed more than 11,300 people. Congo’s health ministry on Thursday reported 1,206 confirmed and probable cases, including 764 deaths.
Breitbart News is now reporting that 20 Congolese migrants are being monitored for Ebola in shelters as they wait to enter the United States.
A public health official in Laredo, Texas, said 20 Congolese migrants were monitored for Ebola and other diseases in shelters in his city and across the Mexican border in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.
“We have 8 Congolese right now in one of our shelters and a dozen in Nuevo Laredo,” Laredo Health Director Dr. Hector Gonzalez told the Laredo City Councilman George Altget during a council meeting on April 4. “For them, my concern was Ebola.” He said that due to the time element, the Congolese migrants were not developing symptoms of Ebola. “But, we’re on alert to check that,” he said.
A top Red Cross official told NBC News on Friday that he is “more concerned than I have ever been” about the current outbreak of Ebola spreading regionally. Emanuele Capobianco cited statistics from the Congolese health ministry confirming 40 new cases over a two-day period last week. NBC reported that the official called the rate unprecedented in this particular outbreak.
Doctors Without Borders responded to the lack of action from the WHO.
“Whatever the official status of this outbreak is, it is clear that the outbreak is not under control and therefore we need a better collective effort, Gwenola Seroux, emergency manager for the organization said in a written statement. “What is most important now if we want to gain control of this epidemic is to change the way we are dealing with it.”
In Laredo, Dr. Gonzalez said migrants from other countries present other health risks as well. He said they are monitoring migrants for yellow fever and malaria. “We don’t commonly see these (diseases), but we could.”
The LA Times reports that immigrations officials in Mexico are calling the surge of migrants from outside Latin America, unprecedented.
In a surge Mexican officials are calling unprecedented, some 15,000 migrants from outside Latin America passed through Baja California this year — nearly five times the number seen in 2015.
More than a third of the detainees being held in California immigration holding centers in September were from outside Latin America, U.S. officials say.
As they traverse a circuitous and dangerous path up the spine of South America, Central America and Mexico, they have strained resources along the route and presented new challenges for securing America’s southern border.
They have opened a dramatic new chapter in the long story of immigration to the New World. While earlier generations arrived on ocean liners from Europe or on small boats from across the Caribbean, these would-be Americans are tapping networks long used to funnel drugs and migrants overland into the U.S. from Latin America.
Unlike the millions who have traveled over the years from Mexico and Central America, many of those now arriving at America’s southern border are flying across oceans and launching their journeys from deep in South America, across terrain of unimaginable difficulty.
Is the United States of America prepared for an Ebola outbreak? More specifically, are sanctuary cities prepared for an outbreak of Ebola? What do you think? What can America do to prevent Africans infected with the deadly Ebola virus from entering the United States? Tell us what you think in the comment section below.
