Introduction
On January 1, 1892, a 15 year old Irish girl named Annie Moore became the first immigrant to enter the United States through Ellis Island, the newly opened federal immigration depot in New York Harbor. The depot opened for business at the beginning of the peak immigration period in U.S. history. During its first year of operation, Ellis Island processed nearly half a million people, and the annual number of newcomers received there more than doubled within 15 years. By 1924, when more restrictive laws greatly slowed the flow of immigrants to America, some 12 million people had already entered the country through Ellis Island. Each of these immigrants passed under the watchful eyes of physicians of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) before being admitted to this country.
The Public Health Service was given increasing responsibility for quarantine inspection of ships arriving from foreign ports. Federal legislation in 1891 also mandated the medical inspection of all arriving immigrants and assigned this task to the PHS. The law stipulated the exclusion of "all idiots, insane persons, paupers or persons likely to become public charges, persons suffering from a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease" and criminals. The physicians who performed these inspections saw themselves as "keepers of the gate."
Task
It is your job as a Public Health Service team to educate newcomers of possible reasons for detention or deportation. You will (1) identify and investigate possible infectious diseases, (2) determine the causes of these diseases and how they are transmitted, or spread, (3) implement treatment and prevetion protocal, (4) list the possible complications of these diseases if left untreated, and (5) design a brochure for incoming immigrants explaining the above criteria. The brochure should also include signs and symptoms of the disease along with pictures for any immigrants who don't speak English (most do not). Each team member will have a specialized role in participating in the final group presentation.