By: Shelley Kofler, KERA NEWS
State health officials have alerted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control about conditions in border facilities where thousands of Central American children are being detained.
KERA’s Shelley Kofler reports on concerns about an increased risk for the spread of disease.
BROWNSVILLE AND MCALLEN–Four weeks ago the Texas Department of State Health Services sent two of its staff to federal detention facilities in Brownsville and McAllen.
A one-page summary of findings provided to KERA details severe overcrowding- five and a half square feet of living space per child, when national standards call for 20. Children with contagious infections like scabies and lice were not adequately separated from the general population. Some children were held for days in an area without air conditioning where they slept on the concrete, were exposed to insects and temperatures reached 100 degrees.
Carrie Williams is a spokesperson for State Health Services.
WILLIAMS: “There are toilets in the cells where kids eat and sleep and that opens the possibility for spread of disease. When you have people in close quarters there is just an increased risk of disease spread and outbreak.
Williams says Texas Health Commissioner David Lakey visited the same facilities again last week. The non air-conditioned area was not being used but little else had changed.
Williams says Lakey contacted the director of the Centers for Disease Control.
WILLIAMS: “we do think the CDC involvement should have more involvement given their expertise in disease management spread”
In an email the CDC said it’s consulting with a separate federal agency that provides medical screenings after the children are moved from the detention centers to longer term housing. We requested an interview with U.S. Customs and Border Protection which oversees the detentions centers but have received no response.
Jessica Maxwell with a division under Homeland Security says before children enter detention centers they’re visually checked for signs of illness like rashes or coughing.
MAXWELL: “If they are found to be suffering from serious medical affliction they are transferred to the local emergency department for treatment, if someone is found to have a communicable disease then they are quarantined from the general detainee population”
Williams says State Health Services would like to see more thorough health screenings before children enter detention. She acknowledges, however, that the level of illness reported to her agency so far has been consistent with what’s in Texas’ general population: three children with flu, three with tuberculosis and dozens with chicken pox. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins has repeatedly said North Texans should not be concerned that 2,000 of these children may soon be transferred to shelters here.
JUDGE JENKINS: “The diseases these children may carry are diseases for the most part that go through every elementary school in DISD every year”.
But Williams says State Health Services is concerned that conditions are ripe for disease, among a population that may have reduced resistance after an exhausting, trauma-filled journey.
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