Speech #920154984

The entire families of those children who reacted were then tuberculin tested and all persons showing reaction were then Xrayed and put on medication which was provided by the State Department of Public Health. This meant that in 1970. more than 1.000 persons were receiving medication. Director Landreville also indicated that public health nurses as well as the nurses in the public school system have found a large number of these immigrant children with intestinal parasites causing serious malnutrition. He went on to assert the belief of the Department of Public Health that immigration authorities in Portugal are not adequately screening the people who are coming to this country from the point of view of determining whether they are suffering from any contagious disease or determining what their health problems may be. On a practical level. Director Landreville told us that the public health nurses who are traveling in the field find they are barred from many of the homes of immigrants who are illegally within this country because many of these people. knowing that they may be deported. fear officials of any kind. This fear makes the work of the field nurses doubly difficult. particularly when there is also a language barrier that is not easy to overcome. In the related area of education.