A small number of tuberculosis cases have been confirmed among migrants at city shelters.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file
A small number of tuberculosis cases have been detected among migrants at city shelters, the Chicago Department of Public Health confirmed.
The health department would not share exactly how many cases were found or identify shelters. But the department said there haven't been any reports of TB in the city from an exposure to migrants positive for the infection.
TB is curable with antibiotics, and transmitting the infection to others typically requires hours of contact between individuals.
A spokesperson said about 10% to 20% of Central and South American residents have latent TB infections, meaning they're positive for the infection but are asymptomatic and can't pass it to others. But the spokesperson did not say which of these cases, if any, are latent infections.
For patients with an active TB infection, the health department assigns a nurse case manager to each person and conducts contact-tracing.
Symptoms can be a bad cough that lasts three weeks or longer, pain in the chest and coughing up blood, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Patients with TB can also experience fatigue, weight loss, lack of appetite, chills, fever and sweating at night.
An Associated Press analysis found that Venezuela's vaccination rate is among the lowest in the world. Experts largely blame the ongoing political turmoil and the unraveling of the country's health system.
Many Venezuelan children, for example, lack several of the 10 vaccines recommended by 12 months of age to protect against 14 diseases, including polio, measles and tuberculosis, The AP found.
Public health issues have been plaguing migrants for months, especially those staying in city shelters. At least 52 cases of measles have been confirmed in Chicago, and most are from an early March outbreak at the crowded migrant shelter in Pilsen.
About two-thirds of the confirmed cases have been in children 4 years or younger, while about a third were in adults 18 to 49 years old, according to the city.
The Pilsen shelter is the same facility where a 5-year-old boy died in December from sepsis and a bacterial infection that causes strep throat, according to an autopsy. Contributing factors to his death were listed as COVID-19, adenovirus and rhinovirus.
Other children staying at the shelter were also hospitalized at the time amid complaints of unsanitary and overcrowded conditions.
Children ages 4 and younger account for 21 of the city’s total cases, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health. Officials say vaccination is the best way to prevent measles and stop its spread.
Residents at the Pilsen migrant shelter should receive a second measles shot 28 days after their first one, the city’s Department of Public Health advised.
The city began evicting migrants from its 23 shelters, affecting potentially 2,000 people by the end of April. Alderpersons are calling for a halt and greater transparency.
Dozens of adults were expected to be evicted Sunday, amid an outbreak of measles, but just three were. They will be able to reapply for shelter at the city’s designated ‘landing zone.’
Beginning with 35 individuals Sunday, more than 2,000 people will be evicted by the end of April, the city announced Friday. Families will get a break until the end of the school year.
An untold number of migrants are expected to have to leave shelters Saturday, and what comes next is a mystery to many — perhaps “la calle,” one man said, gesturing toward Halsted Street.
Earlier this week, Chicago Public Schools learned of a positive measles case involving a student at Philip D. Armour Elementary School, and the Chicago Department of Public Health confirmed another case at Cooper Dual Language Elementary Academy.
Chicago’s mayor said the 60-day limit on shelter stays would, after previous delays, finally be enforced Saturday, impacting potentially thousands. There would, however, continue to be exemptions.
The newest cases were both in adults at the shelter. The city’s total number of cases is up to five, the city health department says. More than 900 residents of the shelter were vaccinated over the weekend and are being quarantined for 21 days.
The city health agency is currently screening other residents of the shelter at 2241 S. Halsted St. and those who may have come in contact with the children while they were contagious, officials said in a Sunday news release.
Dozens gathered Saturday in Pritzker Park to protest Mayor Brandon Johnson’s long-delayed plan to evict migrants living in shelters longer than 60 days. The order will go into effect March 16.
Chicago health department officials said the patient has recovered and is no longer contagious. The shelter is on lockdown until residents are vaccinated, officials said.
None of the 23 measles cases in the U.S. between Dec. 1 and Jan. 23 were in Illinois. But the first measles cases since 2019 were reported in Cook County last year, and Illinois has seen an alarming uptick in the number of schools with low vaccination rates.
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