Indochinese Refugees in the United States Announcement of Improved Health Screening and Medical Care for U.&-Bound Refugees.

The Public Health Service (PHS) has assigned 11 public health professionals to Southeast Asia to improve health screening and medical care for U.S.-bound refugees.

The professionals, six of whom are physicians, are assisting the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration with screening and the World Health Organization with providing medical care. They have been sent within the past month to locations in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Earlier this year, the President announced that the United States would double to 14,000 the number of Indochinese refugees allowed to enter the country each month. Assignment of the public health professionals will help assure continued success in avoiding any significant outbreak of communicable disease among resettled refugees in this country.

The Public Health Service, in cooperation with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Department of State, and voluntary refugee resettlement agency representatives abroad, is also taking steps to assure that adequate records are kept for all medical screening procedures, findings, and treatments, and establish a system for collecting and analyzing data to measure the incidence of disease and health and immunization status.

In addition, PHS has increased its staff at affected U.S. ports of entry and has instituted systems for forwarding medical records to the refugees' destinations. In this country PHS is assessing the health status of refugees and helping them find a continuing source of health care in their new communities.