Performance Task Scenario: Tuberculosis Outbreak

You are an administrator at Worcester General Hospital, in Worcester, Massachusetts, faced with an outbreak of tuberculosis (TB) in your community. It is your job to work with the local health department (LHD) to investigate, monitor, control, and contain the disease.

The index case, Rosa Cruz, is a recent undocumented immigrant to Worcester from El Salvador. When she and her family arrived in Worcester, they lived in a homeless shelter temporarily until they found permanent housing. She now works part time at a local daycare center and is a devout member of her church. She lives with her husband, three children, and four other members of her extended family.

A nurse who attends Mrs. Cruz's church noticed that Mrs. Cruz was coughing a lot and had lost weight and advised her to seek testing and treatment. Not having health insurance, Mrs. Cruz went to the emergency room at Worcester General Hospital. The laboratory at Worcester General Hospital confirmed that Mrs. Cruz has active TB. In the days following Mrs. Cruz's diagnosis, 13 other members of the community, including several members of her family, were also diagnosed with TB.

Part 1: Editorial: Medical Tourism

It has come to your attention that an international hospital aggressively recruits brain cancer patients in your local area. Their innovative treatment is approved in their country; however is considered experimental in your own country. Many patients in the late stages of brain cancer travel to their location as a last hope for a treatment that might stop the aggressive progression of their otherwise terminal illness.

Write a persuasive letter to an editor in your local community making a case for or against seeking this international medical care. Consider as many options for domestic and international treatment as possible, including traditional local treatment options as well as holistic or experimental treatments abroad. Be sure your letter addressesboththe local- and destination-country's perspective on this issue.