Monday, November 23, 2020 – The United States Government has dealt a severe blow to thousands of Kenyan dreamers wishing to seek greener pastures abroad.
This is after it indicated that Kenyans, among others, who live or intend to travel to the US, will have to face more scrutiny and surveillance.
The announcement came following a report which noted that Kenyan immigrants to the US have been listed among the top TB spreaders.
The report, published by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stated that the study was vital to zero in on the high-risk groups out of the estimated 44.5 million immigrants living in the United States.
About 122,118 TB cases recorded from immigrants from about 100 countries were investigated.
The results showed that five countries emerged as among the top spreaders: Somalia, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Liberia, and Kenya, in that order.
The report further noted that these five groups posed a higher risk due to a delayed TB progression within a human system known as latent TB.
Latent TB occurs when the TB bacteria remains dormant within the body over a long period of time, but after many years, the disease progresses to active disease.
In most cases, the TB reactivation cases occur in immigrants who have lived in the US for more than a decade but the report noted otherwise.
“In particular, more recent entrants from Kenya, Myanmar and Liberia are predicted to face greater TB risks than earlier entrants from these countries,” read part of the report.
The Kenyan Government over the years has been implementing efforts and strategies to put an end to the deadly disease that has caused an estimated 43,000 deaths annually.
In collaboration with the US CDC, the Government allocated significant resources in a bid to control the measures locally.
Unfortunately, Kenya is still ranked among the top 30 countries with the highest TB burden in the world with an estimated 160,000 cases recorded annually.
E! News Blog
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