The US immigration medical exam is a mandatory medical exam required for green card applicants or for people who are seeking adjustment of their status to that of permanent residence in the U.S. including those seeking asylum. Additionally it is necessary for certain non immigrant visas. In the U.S., it is conducted with a USCIS approved civil surgeon while outside the U.S. a doctor on the board of USCIS conducts it. It features a list of tests including a tuberculin skin test or IGRA evaluation to detect tuberculosis. If the first tuberculosis tests are positive, the applicant should undergo a chest x ray. Pregnant women can opt out of the radiograph if they don’t want to experience it provided they provide a certification of the pregnancy signed by their physician or obstetrician.
Followed by the TB tests is a body check up of ears, eyes, nose, throat, Lymph nodes, lungs, heart and the external genital region. These evaluations are carried out to ascertain the existence of other communicable diseases, which sometimes the applicant himself may not know about. Afterwards, the candidate is examined for drug abuse and a psychological evaluation is done based on the medical history. Finally, a set of vaccines is administered. These vaccines are mandatory, according to the Immigration and Nationality Act, and as required by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Immigration doctors execute this step with precision depending on the technical directions laid down by the CDC. The immigration medical examination is conducted for the purposes of ensuring that the immigrant is not inadmissible on the grounds of public health and security. For more details about immigration process visit here and it is necessary that the immigrant doesn’t bring in diseases which have been eradicated in the United States or the ones which are under process of being eradicated or the ones that may possibly lead to an outbreak.
The CDC implements a list of inadmissible health related problems which need to be vaccinated for as indicated by the Advisory Community on Immunization Practices (ACIP), in accordance with the regulations laid down in the Immigration and Nationality Act. These are assessed for and vaccinated throughout the immigration medical. Vaccination for vaccine-preventable ailments includes at least the Following ailments: Mumps, Measles, Rubella, Polio, Tetanus and Diphtheria toxics, Peruses, Influenza type B and Hepatitis B. Following TB outbreaks in Los Angeles, South Carolina and most recently Wisconsin, a new sort of TB, multi drug-resistant, was discovered. This sort of TB cannot be easily cured with routine TB drugs and treating it costs thousands of dollars per patient. Moreover, TB in itself is an extremely contagious disease. It requires at least a year’s therapy to completely recover. Approximately half of the total TB cases in the country affect people in Florida, Texas, California and America, all areas with high immigrant population.