Entry #8: Health Crisis for Marshallese living in the US

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 Whenever I come across a news story about Marshallese immigrants in the US, it almost always talks about the poor health of Marshallese people. It makes me really sad.

Without access to health care, Marshallese people living in the US have had some of the poorest health outcomes of any population in the world, especially diabetes and thyroid rates. “Health assessments of Marshallese adults in the United States found 44.2% in Hawaii and 46.5% in Arkansas had diabetes. An additional 25.3% in Hawaii and 21.4% in Arkansas had pre-diabetes” (McElfish et al. “Health Beliefs”). In addition to the diabetes crisis, the legacy of the nuclear testing lingers through high rates of cancers and thyroid disease. “Radioactive fallout from the tests devastated people’s health and was later documented to have caused an elevated incidence of thyroid disorders. First reported in the country in 1961, these disorders have afflicted at least 1,500” (Raj).


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