Taylor County projected to see 400+ cases of refugees
ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) — Abilene is a hub city for refugees, people legally coming to the United States to flee war and natural disasters. As the number of refugees increases, more resources are needed to support them.
One of the first checkpoints refugees must make when they first arrive in the U.S. is to the health department to get screened within 30 days.
Richard Musonera is a registered nurse who was once a refugee from Africa. He said the first 30 days of screening are essential.
“As a refugee, usually you have an unstable environment moving from one place to another,” Musonera said. “In the African communities, usually, they don’t have enough treatments and sometimes probably bring some illness, so you want to catch that before it can spread in the community.”
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Taylor County is projected to see 410 cases of refugees in 2024, ranging from one person to an entire family. The director of nursing with the Taylor County Public Health Department, Cari Waller, said there is a reason why we see such a large number and that it will continue to grow.
“Incoming from East African countries is pretty consistent for us here in Abilene. That’s because people tend to resettle where they have family, and because we started out kind of as a hub for the East African families, people are continuing to come to Abilene,” Waller shared.
The number of cases puts a strain on resources, causing the department to readjust and get more resources.
“Right now, we are referring the bulk of our exams to Abilene Community Health because of the volume we have coming in,” Waller said. “Refugee staff that are assisting with translation, we needed to beef that up because our current Spanish-speaking staff actually serve in other roles around the health department, and it was taking away from the work that they do.”
The Taylor County Health District is taking measures to accommodate the increasing number of people. They are looking to acquire additional resources, such as more staff, including full-time translators. To ease the stressors of this influx of people, they have been granted a 90-day extension period instead of the usual 30-day screening requirement.
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