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HIV, Hepatitis B and TB treatment

UK DOCTOR | 11.06.2003 13:32

Last year, African immigration overtook gay sex as the main cause of HIV in Britain, and a quarter of all those being treated by the NHS for HIV are now, African immigrants.

Some hospitals are spending their entire HIV budgets treating their imported nurses.

A staggering 95 per cent of cases of Hepatitis B - one of the world's worst killers - are imported.

The London immigrant borough of Brent has higher rates of TB than China, and twice that of Brazil.

Infected immigrants arriving in Britain each year are doubling the rate of HIV, trebling the rate of TB and increasing twentyfold the rate of hepatitis B. All of these are life threatening diseases which could be, and in some cases have been, passed onto the host community.

Between them they claim six million lives a year worldwide. TB can be cured,(not always) but HIV infection and hepatitis B can only be treated at huge expense to the NHS.

Even if victims survive for many years, HIV and hepatitis B are incurable. Britain's new epidemics are the direct result of Labour policy. The Government is not only importing epidemics, but is also failing to tackle them and indeed is trying to hide what is happening from the public.

Obviously the Government has no desire to spread disease, but its fear of being branded 'racist' means that this is precisely what it is doing.

The Government is culpable. These are Blair's epidemics. The refugee lobby has stopped the Government from combating abuse of the asylum system. While almost every other. European country has slashed the number of asylum-seekers, the number coming to Britain grows rapidly.

Last year they swept past 100,000 - a dramatic increase on the 40,000 in 1996. On top of this, the Government wants to attract at least 150,000 settlers a year. It has more than quadrupled the number of work permits -most of which can lead to a passport -from 41,000 in 1996 to a target of 175,000 this year, with people from the Third World making up almost all the increase.

In addition, the number of student visas has risen to more than 339,000 last year with two-thirds coming from the developing nations.

Britain has no health tests for immigrants, either as a condition of entry or in the form of compulsory screening after they arrive. By contrast, America, Canada and Australia all insist on tests, usually paid for by the aspiring immigrant, to show that they will not be a threat to public health or a burden on the health system.

Lord Thrnberg, the for-Laboratory Service (PHLS), has said Britain must protect the public and the NHS by introducing immigrant health tests. But the Government dismisses as 'fascist' all criticism of its policicy, that immigrants cannot be prevented from coming to Britain and enjoying free healthcare if they carry a lethal contagious disease that may require expensive lifelong treatment.

Clearly the Government is determined the immigration system must be run in the interests of immigrants and not the British public. New Labour has made it official policy that carrying a lethal contagious disease is grounds for immigrants being allowed to remain in Britain once they are here.

By applying its beloved Human Rights Act to everyone who sets foot in Britain, the Labour Government has decided that if treatmantis unavailable their home country anyoone with a lifethreatening condition, such as HIV infection, hepatitis B or TB, has a right to stay in the Britain and be treated on the NIIS.

In fact, all the 28 million HIV-positive people in Africa have to do to save their lives is get into Britain. No wonder we are witnessing significant health migration, with seriously ill people arriving on tourist or student visas, then using Legal Aid-funded immigration lawyers to apply under the Human Rights Act to get lifelong treatment in Britain.

As a result, 700 HIV-positive nurses are entering the country every year. Each of them is allowed to bring in an HIV-positive spouse and each will receive NHS treatment costing £11,000 every year for the rest of their lives.

One HIV doctor told me some hospitals are spending their entire HIV budgets treating their imported nurses. Since the Government insists it is unfair to deny people the. right to come to Britain just because they are carrying lethal diseases, the outcome of its mass immigration programme is inevitable.

Britain is rapidly becoming one of the world's most diseased countries. Last year, African immigration overtook gay sex as the main cause of HIV in Britain, and a quarter of all those being treated by the NHS for HIV are now, African immigrants.

Government figures show that more than 2,000 HIV infections were imported last year, which could eventually cost the NHS £1 billion.

The fact that those lives will be saved is wonderful, but the Government's policy of tackling the African Aids holocaust by giving NHS treatment to those who can afford the plane ticket to Britain is totally irrational. Spending these vast sums in Africa itself would save millions of lives, not just thousands.

Effective HIV policies kept the number of new HIV cases in Britain steady at about 2,600 a year before Labour was elected in 1997, but the Government has succeeded in doubling it to around 5,000 last year HIV, which still kills about 400 people a year in Britain, is now spreading to the resident population, so that contracting HIV from heterosexual sex with infected immigrants has overtaken both injecting drugs and mother-to-baby transfer as a source of infection.

About 200 people acquired HIV from immigrants last year the same number as were killed in the Bali bombings. Doctors fear that African immigration may be igniting the heterosexual epidemic we have until now successfully avoided.

Similarly, the level of TB, an often curable but sometimes lethal disease, is at its highest since the Eighties. Last year there were 7,300 recorded cases, two-thirds of them imported from overseas.

The London borough of Brent has higher rates of TB than China, and twice that of Brazil.

The PilLS has estimated that 6,300 Hepatitis B infections were imported in each of the past four overtook gay sex as the main cause of HIV in Britain, and a quarter of all those being treated by the NHS for HIV are now African immigrants. Government figures show that more than 2,000 HIV infections were imported last year, which could eventually cost the. NHS £1 billion. The fact that those lives will be saved is wonderful, but the Government's policy of tackling the African Aids holocaust by giving NHS treatment to those who can afford the plane ticket to Britain is totally irrational.

Spending these vast sums in Africa itself would save millions of lives, not just thousands. Effective HIV policies kept the number of new HIV cases in Britain steady at about 2,600 a year before Labour was elected in 1997, but the Government has succeeded in doubling it to around5,000 last year HIV, which still kills about 400 people a year in Britain, is now spreading to the resident population, so that contracting HIV from heterosexual sex with infected immigrants has overtaken both injecting drugs and mother-to-baby transfer as a source of infection.

About 200 people acquired HIV from immigrants last year the same number as were killed in the Bali bombings. Doctors fear that African immigration may be igniting the heterosexual epidemic we have until now successfully avoided.

Similarly, the level of TB, an often curable but sometimes lethal disease, is at its highest since th~ Eighties. Last year there were 7,300 recorded cases, two-thirds of them imported from overseas.

The London borough of Brent has higher rates of TB than China, and twice that of Brazil.

The PilLS has estimated that 6,300liepatitis B infections were imported in each of the past four years, compared with fewer than 300 domestically acquired cases.

In other words, a staggering 95 per cent of cases of this incurable liver disease - one of the world's worst killers - are imported. A study soon to be published will show that one out of every 50 people in East London is now infected with hepatitis B - the same rate as Nepal and Ecuador.

Doctors are warning that this imported epidemic will inevitably start spreading to the host population. In this age of mass transport, all developed countries are touched by the globalisation of disease. But this Labour Government, with its policy of encouraging mass Third World immigration while refusing health tests, has 'This is big - and it's being covered up' effectively ensured that Britain is far more seriously affected than most. In the face of such a public health disaster, a vaguely sane government would try to tackle it.

But this is Labour, whose intellectual faculties are so crippled by political correctness that not offending would-be immigrants has become more important than saving the lives of British citizens. Doctors -who inquired whether they should be draining their HIV budgets by treating illegal immigrants have been ordered by senior officials to stop causing trouble. The PIlLS's own Press releases have seriously misled the British Media over the issue

When I wrote in one newspaper demanding Canadian-style health tests, Government officials denounced me as a fascist, and David Blunkett echoed that view in the House of Commons. But one of the Government's own advisers rang me up shortly afterwards and warned

'It is far bigger than BSE, claiming far more lives, and it's being covered up.' A worried health official also got in touch.

'It's just a matter of basic honesty with the British public, but ministers are worried about racism,' he said. So instead, the Government has launched a public campaign not to curb the influx of HIV immigrants, but to tell teenagers to wear condoms.

Rather than stem the deluge of imported hepatitis B infections, the Government is planning to vaccinate every child in Britain to protect them from it.

A few weeks ago, the crescendo of warnings from doctors was such that the Government launched a review of its life-threatening policies. But don't hold your breath.

Alarmed at the number of HIV-positive nurses it was recruiting, the NHS reviewed its policy on testing staff. All staff must now undergo HIV tests, but they won't be used to stop infected nurses coming to Britain, claiming free lifelong treatment and spreading the disease. Instead, they will be used to decide which department infected nurses should work in.

Make no mistake. These are serious epidemics. And they are all Labour's fault.

(c) The Spectator.

UK DOCTOR

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