Thousands of children separated from their families due to President Donal Trump's initial "Zero Tolerance" border policy may be at risk of contracting lice, bedbugs and chickenpox, among other diseases, while housed at detention centers, according to The Daily Good.
Here are five things to know:
1. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told The Daily Good 243 migrant children separated from their parents at the border were sent to the Cayuga Centers foster care facility in East Harlem. Upon visiting the facilities, staff told Mr. de Blasio some of the children had illnesses they likely contracted at the border facilities.
2. Even though President Trump ended the forced separation of families last week, more than 10,000 unaccompanied children have already crossed the border and are being held in detention centers.
3. The cramped living conditions the children face at the detention facilities, in conjunction with the stress of separation from their family, will only weaken their immune systems, making the children even more susceptible to disease and infection, physicians told The Daily Good.
4. Peter Hotez, MD, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Houston-based Baylor College of Medicine, expects the same type of illnesses, including respiratory diseases like norovirus, to spread through the detention centers as those that quickly spread through evacuation shelters after hurricanes or other disasters.
"Anytime you throw children together who are living under conditions of stress and crowding, you worry about disease outbreak," Dr. Hotez told The Daily Good.
5. Federal officials did not respond to The Daily Good's request for comment on whether these children have received disease screening and treatment or how the government is working to prevent the spread of diseases among this population.
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