Poultry workers test positive for TB

[RamboLiberal]

Source: The Greenville News

State health officials tested 286 employees at a Greenville poultry-processing plant for tuberculosis after a case of TB was reported there, and nearly half had a positive skin test.

The investigation at Columbia Farms began a week ago after tests on the first individual confirmed active TB, said Thom Berry, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

The positive skin tests on 131 of the workers means they were exposed to TB sometime in their lives, not that they have active disease, he said.

Of those workers, 63 had chest X-rays, revealing two possible cases of active disease, though officials are still awaiting confirmatory tests, he said. Neither is showing any symptoms, but they are being treated along with the initial individual, he said. Treatment involves taking antibiotics for six to 12 months.





Read more: http://greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070620/NEWS01/706200388/1004/NEWS01

[loudsue]

1. Holy shit! That's an hour's drive from here!

That's where our chickens come from, for those who don't buy organic.

:kick:

[liberalnurse]

2. It is an airborne

mode of transmission,,,,,the poultry is not the concern, but since you breathe oxygen, well, now you are at risk if you are in proximity of an active TB individual....Like that can be anywhere, the gas station, grocery store, the bank...., :hide:

[1monster]

3. Does cooking kill TB germs? If not, well, add that to the growing list

of things that will kill us one way or another... Chinese using melamine in food to boost (false) protein levels, using antifreeze in medicines and toothpaste instead of medical grade glycerin, mosquitos carrying West Nile and encephalitis, soft drinks with ingredients that are carcinogens and other ingredients that kill DNA.

Our modern world. Gotta love it. Not.

[liberalnurse]

4. Here is a cute illustration.....

http://www.doh.state.fl.us/disease_ctrl/tb/Introduction/TB%20Intro.html

click on the "cough".

[RamboLiberal]

10. I don't think the chicken can be contaminated

And as someone points out only the ones showing active are a risk to those who are exposed to them for long periods. They'd mainly be a risk to family and coworkers.

[waiting for hope]

5. OMG!!!

I used to work for their International Division in Wilmington....Left after six months of putting up with Bullshit.

[Seedersandleechers]

6. Please

"The positive skin tests on 131 of the workers means they were exposed to TB sometime in their lives, not that they have active disease, he said."
I'm a nurse who has tested positive and so has half of my co-workers. It's called latent TB. The article wants you to be afraid...be very afraid...

[LisaL]

9. They did say they found a couple with what appears to be

active TB.

[Seedersandleechers]

13. And that is my point, that the article is wanting you to be afraid of

Mexican workers. It's racist....

[LisaL]

14. Did they even describe the workers as mexican?

And TB is very much on the news largely because of the TB man traveling on his honeymoon. Hopefully this is your regular TB and not your drug resistant variety.

[Seedersandleechers]

17. You are right about that...

It didn't say Mexicans, however there is a TB vaccine given to Mexican children that will render our TB test positive.

[LisaM]

7. How can they even get jobs without a TB test?

I worked briefly at a coffee shop - a coffee shop! - and needed a TB skin test. You'd think they'd be ten times stricter at a meat processing plant.

[LisaL]

8. TB skin test only shows if you have been exposed to TB.

People who can react positive on TB skin test are not contagious unless they have active TB.

[LisaM]

11. Right, but it sounds as if the tests were only adminstered AFTER

someone had tested positive. Don't they have to get the skin test even to walk in the door? Of course, maybe it varies by state (though it shouldn't, since we all eat the food).

[LisaL]

12. Sure doesn't seem like they were tested before they started to

work there. But most of them are perfectly healthy and not contagious even if they have positive TB skin test. Only those with active TB are contagious.

[LisaM]

15. I'm sorry; I didn't mean to imply they were all TB carriers

but if they aren't doing even the most routine employee checks that I had to go through at a coffee shop, where I didn't really even handle food, you'd think that they would screen much more thoroughly at a poultry plant. However, I expect no less in post-Reagan America.

[LisaL]

16. I never had a TB test check to get a job, and I worked with food.

It must not be required.