The multi-cultural nature of the United States has once again been revealed by the outbreak of serious disease in an immigrant population. The good thing is that these diseases are treatable and curable. The bad thing is that this is a population that will tend to be non-compliant with treatment.

In 1986, a compact was created between the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The compact granted the Marshall Islands — the site of numerous nuclear tests between 1947 and 1962 — its sovereignty and allowed the U.S. to continue maintaining a missile test site at the Kwajalein Atoll.

The compact also allows citizens of the Marshall Islands to live and work in the United States without being subject to U.S. immigration laws, but they are ineligible for Medicare, non-emergency Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and most other forms of federally-funded public assistance.

Diseases such as tuberculosis and leprosy are alarmingly common among Marshallese immigrants, yet many are unable to afford treatment, according to Pritchard.

“Very often they do not come in for some help until the disease has (caused) very serious physical symptoms and is very far advanced,” he said. “So you can imagine the time bomb that we’re sitting on here with … 6,000-8,000 folks freely traveling in and out of this country and in and out of the state, that when we have an outbreak of serious disease, it is going to be a state health problem.”

Deputy State Health Officer Dr. Joe Bates testified that between 2000 and 2005, Northwest Arkansas had nine cases of congenital syphilis, six of which involved Marshallese; 38 people with infectious syphilis, 21 of whom were Marshallese; and eight cases of leprosy, all Marshallese. Morning News

References:

• Marshall Islands - CIA World Factbook
• Tuberculosis - Centers for Disease Control
• Leprosy - Centers for Disease Control
• City of Springdale Arkansas