Prevalence of disease in Southeast Asian teenagers. Results of screening medical examination at a residential vocational training facility.

Findings on health screening of immigrant Southeast Asian adolescents enrolled at a Federally funded vocational training facility were reviewed for the years 1979-1982. History of or positive skin test for tuberculosis was found in 55%. A heavy parasite burden was found in 46% of the recent Laotian immigrants, but was infrequent in Vietnamese who had been in the United States for several months before testing. Anemia was found in only 5.5%, though an additional 6.5% had findings suggestive of Thalasemia trait. Hepatitis B surface antigen positivity occurred in 16.8% but none had abnormal liver enzymes. One case of leprosy and three cases of idiopathic microscopic hematuria were detected.