The U.S. is facing a major health threat due to the explosion of disease at detention centers holding thousands of illegal-immigrant children on the southern border, says Dr. Elaina George, who specializes in ear, nose and throat afflictions.

"It’s absolutely a health threat,'' George, a board-certified otolaryngologist, told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV Monday.

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"It's like a perfect pressure cooker … a culture medium if you really want to think about it in that manner — a 1700 mile track by foot, by train or however else they're coming up. 

"They haven't been fed, they're dehydrated their immune systems have basically taken a major hit and you have to remember that they're young children so they don't have a lot of reserve to begin with.''

And the illnesses are plentiful, ranging from the common cold to tuberculosis.

"Frontline health professionals that say that they're seeing people with active TB who are coughing up blood, who are short of breath, who are physically in the throes of active TB and they are communicable,'' George said.

"Not everybody shows symptoms right away, but they could have the disease before it actually manifests or shows itself. So they're just as infectious.''

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