Democrat Accuses Chicago Mayor of Migrant 'Cover-Up'

A Democratic official in Chicago is accusing the city's mayor from his own party of engaging in a "cover-up" related to illnesses spreading in city migrant shelters.

Officials from the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) confirmed on Wednesday that a "small number" of tuberculosis (TB) cases have been contracted by migrants in "a few different shelters," according to reports, though they did not disclose the exact number of cases or the shelters.

The new TB cases come on the heels of measles outbreaks. In mid-March, health officials confirmed eight measles cases associated with migrant shelters—the first measles cases of any kind in the city in the past five years. The number has grown to 56 cases as of Friday, with 33 affecting children ages up to age 4, and 15 affecting ages 15 to 49.

Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez, a Democrat, told NewsNation on Thursday that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson's administration has "tried to cover this up from the jump" and ignore the measles and now TB cases, adding that the city is playing a "smoke and mirrors game."

"This is not new," said Lopez, who represents Chicago's 15th Ward. "This has been going on for a long time, and it has become too much to hide."

Newsweek reached out to Lopez, Johnson's office and the CDPH via phone and email for comment.

Lopez also said that he has been told of at least five TB cases that have been linked to the same migrant shelter where the majority of measles cases have been linked since last month, admonishing the city for "slow-rolling" information to the public.

He did not mention which shelter, though a number of measles cases emanated from new migrant arrivals at a shelter in Pilsen in the Lower West Side.

CDPH spokesperson Jacob Martin told Newsweek on Friday that the cases should not be considered as part of an "outbreak," adding that between 100 and 150 cases tend to show up on average annually across the city.

"There is no TB outbreak, as an outbreak would require evidence of recent transmission," Martin said. "Most cases of active TB disease in Chicago and the U.S. occur in people who acquired infection years ago in their home country and then have re-activation of the bacteria later in life.

"Public health TB programs in the U.S. perform contact tracing around infectious cases to prevent spread of the infection to others."

Measles can be prevented with vaccines but TB cannot, though it is curable with antibiotics and is described as not particularly infectious—requiring several hours or more of prolonged close contact between individuals to spread.

Martin said it's also important to note that an estimated 10 to 20 percent of residents of Central and South America have latent TB infection, which is asymptomatic and not transmissible to others but will result in a positive TB test.

"CDPH continues to take cases seriously in order to keep it contained," he said. "To date, CDPH has not confirmed any reports of TB that resulted from exposure to new arrivals in Chicago."

Emily Landon, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Chicago Medicine, told Newsweek via phone that TB is a novel pathogen that has existed for thousands of years and is regularly on the radar of health professionals.

TB usually causes pneumonia in most patients and can settle in the linings of the lungs and intestines, bones, or the central nervous system. It's often contracted in close quarters when others breathe in the disease, but the effects are not as apparent as something like strep throat where illness is pretty distinct.

"TB is really diff than that....It behaves differently and is a lot slower to grow and requires different parts of our immune systems to react to them," Landon said.

There are different disease states, she added. Some people are exposed and it can become stuck in mucus and pose no major risk to the body. But others who are perhaps young or immunocompromised could get sick a month or two later.

In most cases, Landon said the body fights off the infection and it becomes latent, meaning it can't spread, but there's a risk of reactivating and causing infection later on—even sometimes 10 to 50 years later.

"It's not surprising that many of them [migrants] were exposed and carry latent TB with them," she said. "The stress of this terrible journey, where they're malnourished and sleeping outside, it's an incredibly stressful situation."

Treatment provided in latent stages can include taking one or two drugs for three to six months, which Landon said is "really annoying more than anything." Active TB, or pulmonary TB, can require six months of treatment with four drugs to reclaim health.

Landon said Chicagoans and others can follow COVID-based protocols in terms of avoiding contracting TB, including getting fresh air and being in open spaces.

The TB in the aforementioned migrants has not yet been drug resistant, she said, adding that measles outbreaks are of more concern.

CDPH officials have also warned of potential measles exposure at various locations around Chicago, including bus stops, Walmart, churches, office buildings and three public schools, according to WGN.

"I'm at a loss for words because we know why this is happening yet refuse to act or hold @ChicagosMayor & his team accountable #Insanity," Lopez wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.

In February, Democratic Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said continued sheltering of migrants requires roughly $321 million to maintain facilities and services, with taxpayers footing the bill for some $70 million.

Update 4/5/24, 1:14 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Landon.