March 19, 2005
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

WASHINGTON - The Centers for Disease Control is trying to "cook the books"
and "spin the numbers" in a new report that downplays the spread of
tuberculosis in the U.S., insiders within the Atlanta-based U.S. agency tell
the premium, online intelligence newsletter Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

The CDC released a report today portraying a serious TB threat worldwide and
a declining disease rate within the U.S. But the CDC, say insiders, is not
coming clean on the increasing domestic threat, largely posed by dramatic
population increases in recent years by illegal immigrants.

More than one-third of the global population is infected with the
tuberculosis bacterium, and TB disease remains one of the world's leading
causes of disease and death, the CDC says. Each year, 8 million people
become ill with TB, and 2 million people die from the disease.

In fact, next Thursday, March 24, is World TB Day, marking the date in 1882
that scientist Robert Koch announced his discovery of the TB bacterium. The
World Health Organization now uses the annual day as an international call
to action against the disease.

The CDC report emphasized the latest national surveillance data show a
significant, but slowing, decline in the case rate of TB. In 2004, a total
of 14,511 TB cases were reported in the U.S. The overall TB case rate - 4.9
per 100,000 persons - was the lowest rate ever recorded since reporting
began in 1953. However, the decline in the case rate from 2003 to 2004 was
one of the smallest in more than a decade (3.3 percent compared with an
average of 6.8 percent per year), the CDC acknowledged.

The agency also said that "despite the nationwide downward trend, TB
continues to exact a severe toll on many U.S. communities. Seven states now
bear more than half the total burden of TB disease in the U.S. California,
Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Texas account for 59.9
percent of the national case total. The toll continues to be greatest among
minority and foreign-born individuals, who consistently have higher rates of
TB disease.

But CDC sources say the report is a reflection of "political correctness"
inside the agency - a political effort to whitewash what some health
officials see as an alarming new threat of TB's spread largely by illegal
foreign immigrants.

"When you acknowledge, as the CDC has, that one-third of the world's
population is carrying this bacterium and you admit that we have some 20
million foreigners inside this country largely unaccounted for, you begin to
understand the threat," said one G2 Bulletin source. "It's serious. And the
facts are being withheld from the American people because of political
correctness toward the question of illegal immigration."

The CDC does offer some interesting statistics in its report:

In 2004, minority populations had rates of TB significantly higher than the
overall U.S. average. The 2004 TB case rate among Asians was 20 times higher
than that among whites (26.9/100,000 and 1.3/100,000, respectively), while
blacks (11.1/100,000) and Hispanics (10.1/100,000) each had rates eight
times higher than whites.
In 2004, for the first time, there were more cases of TB among Hispanics
than any other ethnic group. However, the TB rate among Hispanics decreased
slightly from 10.3 in 2003 to 10.1 in 2004. This divergent trend was the
result of a 3.6 percent increase in the U.S. Hispanic population between
2003 and 2004.
The TB rate among foreign-born individuals (22.5/100,000) was nearly nine
times the rate among persons born in the United States (2.6/100,000).
Individuals born outside the United States accounted for more than half
(7,701 cases, or 53.7 percent) of all new TB cases in 2004.
While the TB rate among U.S-born persons has declined 64.6 percent over the
past 12 years, the rate among foreign-born persons has declined only 33.9
percent.
Ninety-five percent of Asians reported to have TB in the U.S. in 2004 were
foreign-born. Foreign-born individuals also accounted for the majority - 74
percent - of cases among Hispanics in the U.S. Globally, Asia accounts for
the largest number of TB cases. The impact of TB on Mexico is also worrisome
because many Hispanics diagnosed with TB in the U.S. were born in that
country.

"Even though preventable and treatable, TB remains a serious airborne
disease - one with the ability to adapt, grow stronger, and travel from one
country to another as easily as people do," said the report. "The health
threat must continue to be taken seriously, both here in the U.S. and
abroad."

The CDC also acknowledged the border problems by suggesting the agency was
attempting to address them by strengthening "global partnerships to address
TB among populations hardest-hit by the disease."

"These efforts include improving overseas screening for immigrants and
refugees, and testing recent arrivals from high-incidence countries for
latent TB infection," the report said. "CDC is also improving the
notification system that alerts local health departments about the arrival
of immigrants who are known or believed to have TB, and collaborating with
public health teams in Mexico to improve TB control among those who
frequently cross the U.S.-Mexico border."

Last week, a report in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons blew
the whistle on the way illegal immigration is threatening to destroy
America's prized health-care system.

"The influx of illegal aliens has serious hidden medical consequences,"
writes Madeleine Pelner Cosman, author of the report. "We judge reality
primarily by what we see. But what we do not see can be more dangerous, more
expensive, and more deadly than what is seen."

According to her study, 84 California hospitals are closing their doors as a
direct result of the rising number of illegal aliens and their
non-reimbursed tax on the system.

In addition, the report says, "many illegal aliens harbor fatal diseases
that American medicine fought and vanquished long ago, such as
drug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria, leprosy, plague, polio, dengue, and
Chagas disease."