Tuberculosis: Refugees Produce 29 Percent of Active Cases in New Hampshire

The refugees resettled by the federal government in New Hampshire produced 29 percent of all diagnosed active tuberculosis (TB) cases in the state during 2014 and 2015, says the Centers for Disease Control.

Three contagious TB cases, or “active tuberculosis,” in New Hampshire were diagnosed in refugees in 2015, and four cases were diagnosed in refugees during 2014. During that two year period, a total of 24 cases of active TB were diagnosed in New Hampshire.

So seven of the 24 active cases, or 29 percent, were among refugees delivered by the federal government. The refugee population is less than one percent of the total state population.

New Hampshire does, however, have a much higher per capita rate of refugee TB compared to other states.

Between FY 2008 and FY 2015, 4,368 refugees were resettled in New Hampshire by the federal government. More than 80 percent of these refugees, or 3,497 out of 4,368, arrived from four high TB burden countries, according to the Department of State–Bhutan (2,239 refugees), the Democratic Republic of Congo (797 refugees), Burma (291 refugees), and Somalia (170 refugees).

More