Indiana will cut funding to health services caring for Fort Wayne’s Burmese population. Illnesses such as tuberculosis, HIV and hepatitis, with greater percentages in the Burmese community than Fort Wayne at-large, will go untreated due to the funding cuts to social services. Without proper treatment there is a worry that these illnesses will flourish in the Burmese community and then to the rest of Fort Wayne’s population as well as overloading emergency rooms.

“Fort Wayne’s Burmese population is a ‘reservoir of HIV, resistant tuberculosis, hepatitis B and hepatitis C,’ ” Lutheran Health Network CEO Michael Schatzlein wrote to a colleague in February, quoting his infectious disease specialist, Dr. Suzanne Smith-Elekes.

Some fear that by not having the foresight to treat these illnesses early on, they could spread. By cutting services and programs that deal with preventative medicine and educating the refugees to receive proper treatment may be more costly in the long run.

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   idxfossil Gov. Daniels might be remembered as “Typhoid Mitch” by cancelling programs that keep plagues at bay: http://bit.ly/cz9myz 23 May 2010 from web