That is more than twice the uninsured rate among native-born Americans. Immigration accounted for 59 percent of the growth of the uninsured population between 1994 and 1998. Meanwhile, illegal aliens bypass these tests altogether. Once here, immigrants may avoid TB screening because of the public stigma. A female African immigrant in Maryland who worked at a Burger King restaurant avoided doctor's visits and refused to take medicine until public-health officials quarantined her in a hospital for two weeks.
Immigrants also are likely to discontinue treatment if they move to another area.
Obviously, this kind of conduct further threatens public health and complicates efforts to treat patients. The threat of infection has risen with the employment of immigrants in Americans' homes. For example, an immigrant TB patient secretly being treated by Maryland public-health officers worked as a wealthy family's chauffeur. Another contagious immigrant was a resident nanny. To make things worse, many U.S. public-health officials put political correctness before common sense.