Health problems of Asian and Latino immigrants

Many different circumstances influence Asian and Latino immigration to the United States, including poverty, war, educational opportunities, and prote ction of financial assets. Such varying circumstances point clearly to a di fferent set of expected health problems. Immigrants often lack resources ne cessary to acquire quality health care. These resources involve language sk ills, knowledge of US health care and social services, and insurance. Risk factors to which immigrants may have been exposed include poor nutrition, l ack of immunizations and vaccinations, inadequate or inappropriate treatmen t, and inadequate or inaccurate beliefs about illness and treatment. Freque nt health problems among Latino and Asian immigrants are tuberculosis, hepa titis B, sexually transmitted diseases, cancer, diabetes, and substance abu se. The nursing care of immigrants involves not only attention to reducing risk and treating illness, but also attention to the provision of resources . Nurses face several ethical dilemmas in the health care of immigrants inc luding a public anti-immigrant sentiment, and political attempts to limit h ealth care and education to immigrants.