By Ben Harder
Investing $44 million in tuberculosis-control programs in Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic would save the United States nearly triple that amount over 20 years, according to a health-economics analysis. By minimizing the prevalence of TB abroad, the investment could reduce the burden of disease imported into the country by immigrants, refugees, illegal aliens, and visitors.
Investigators estimated the effects of TB-control programs on U.S. costs for associated illnesses and deaths using two models. In one, U.S.–government funding supports an expansion of TB treatment abroad. In the other, federal funding instead augments TB screening of applicants for legal immigration.