The Texas Department of State Health Services Refugee Health Screening Program operates primarily with funds from the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families. It also receives core support from the TDSHS Tuberculosis Elimination Division. The program supports local health departments in principal resettlement areas with resources to provide health assessments to newly arrived official refugees. It encourages screening for tuberculosis, immunization status, intestinal parasites, hepatitis B, and identification, education, and referral for other health problems. The program also collects and evaluates data on the results of these health screening efforts.

Since the program began collecting information, the refugees have come principally from Vietnam, Bosnia, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, and Cuba, but at least 35 other countries are also represented in the data. The major resettlement areas for these arrivals are the Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston regions. Smaller but regular numbers of refugees also settle elsewhere. The TDSHS Medical Parasitology Section examines intestinal parasite specimens for the Bexar, Dallas, Harris, Potter, and Travis County Health Departments.

Between October of 1994 and January of 2002, our lab examined a total of 17,375 refugee specimens. Our ova and parasite examinations include a formalin-ethyl acetate concentration, a trichrome stained smear, and a Truant’s stained smear for acid-fast organisms, if indicated. Our examinations showed these refugee specimens to have an overall positive rate of 57%, with many of those being multiple infections.

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