Posted on 03/05/2006 1:24:42 PM PST by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
An employee of Tyson Foods in Shelbyville has tested positive for tuberculosis, according to complex manager Michael Sheets. The employee has been sent home, while 64 others working in the same department have been given skin tests for the disease. The company has also been educating employees about the disease. There was no word by 4 p.m. Friday on the skin test results from the 64 others tested. According to the Merck Manual of Medical Information, Home Edition, a positive skin test for tuberculosis does not necessarily mean that the subject actually has the disease. It may only mean that the subject has been infected at some time in the past. In some cases, a negative test can also be false, in cases where the subject has such a severely defective immune system that he or she does not respond to the tuberculosis-derived protein which is injected during the skin test.
According to Tyson director of media relations Gary Mickelson, the Shelbyville plant has more than 400 employees on the same shift as the employee who tested positive and over 900 employees in total. Mickelson said that tuberculosis is a rare disease, with only 250 cases reported in Tennessee last year. That is down from 383 cases in the year 2000. The incident is "not an outbreak, but there has been one person to test positive," said Sheets. He said there is no risk whatsoever of contamination as it relates the plant's products. "In the United States today, tuberculosis is solely transmitted by inhaling indoor air contaminated with [tuberculosis bacteria]," according to the Merck Manual. This would typically require being near a TB victim who is coughing. The bacteria can remain in the air for several hours. The fact that the disease is transmitted only by airborne means rules out transmission by foods or surfaces. TB is most easily transmitted in situations where people are forced to live in close proximity, such as due to poverty.
Or in school dorms, or classrooms, or daycare centers, or military quarters, or office areas, etc. etc. etc.
You're sick. I saw a woman with TB first hand in Asia coughing up her lungs on the counter at the doctor's office. Next thing I knew, I was flying horizontally out the door attached to my mom's hand. I'll never forget that as long as I live.
Never read the story, but in the dark, will lay 5 to 1 odds it is an "undocumented" worker.
Tyson Execs Charged in Smuggling Illegal Aliens
Thursday, Dec. 20, 2001
WASHINGTON – A federal grand jury in Chattanooga, Tenn., has returned a 36-count indictment against executives and managers of Tyson Foods Inc. for conspiracy to smuggle illegal aliens to its U.S. facilities for profit...
indicted are four former managers: Keith Snyder, complex manager, Noel, Mo.; Truley Ponder, former complex manager, Shelbyville, Tenn
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/12/19/154608.shtml
My son contracted Cholera while working for Tyson's in Dexter, Missouri. He almost died.
I won't be eatin that chicken anymore.
IIRC there was a recent thread about immigrants bringing in TB and other diseases we have not seen here in the USA for some time. I guess they don't vacinate their people like we do.
They vaccinate them for smallpox...every single one of them to my knowledge. WE are not vaccinated for smallpox - something to consider. I don't know whether people can be vaccinated for Tuberculosis or not...it's a bacterial infection, not a virus. Enlighten me.
All my children were vacinated for smallpox as children - along with mumps and measles.
I'm not sure what the combination is today .. but most babies are vacinated as infants.
I can remember getting a TB shot when I was about 12. I'm not sure when they do it now.
My sons 15 year old best friend who is an American citizen is currently undergoing the 9 month medicinal treatment for the above. When I told my Dr about it the first question she asked was he born in the country. Sure enough he was born in Poland. He does not have TB and the treatment is a precaution which must be taken so he is immune in the future.
Everyone in her family, or living in the same household, should also be tested.
Mexico actually does vaccinate for TB...the US doesn't. The problem is the vaccine--called BCG--is effective only in preventing severe forms of the disease (such as TB meningitis) in infants and young children. It does nothing to prevent infection or development of TB disease in adults. The lesson here is that to prevent TB anywhere, it must be prevented everywhere. It's a common misconception that the US hasn't seen TB in some time. It was the leading cause of death through the 1800s and into the 1900s, and the US experienced an epidemic of TB in the early 1990s because federal funding to control the disease was zeroed out 20 years previous. The New England Journal of Medicine publised a paper late last year showing that the most cost-effective means of preventing TB in the US is to invest in TB control abroad. To invest $35 million in TB control in Mexico, specifically, would save the US $100 million, prevent an additional 2,600 cases of disease and 349 fewer deaths, and save the US $109 million over the next 20 years in comparison to the present US strategy. Slightly more than hallf of people in the US with TB disease (the US saw slightly more than 14,000 cases last year) are foreign-born; 46% were born in the US. Transmission tends to occur within groups--Mexicans transmit the disease to other Mexicans, Vietnamese to Vietnamese, Americans to Americans.
The TB shot you received as a 12 year old was to test to see if you had a latent TB infection. It wasn't a vaccine.
Ah, so you HAVE seen the Tyson's plant in Shelbyville!
The vaccine used in Europe will cause a false-positive skin test reaction most of the time.
That's actually only part true. The vaccine used "in Europe" is the same vaccine used the world over (but not in the US and some other countries...I'm not exactly sure exactly who's using it and who's not anymore, although I believe it's still the world's most widely administered vaccine). While many doctors (including those in the US) still believe that the vaccine will create a false-positive reaction throughout life, the effect actually wanes then disappears over the course of 5 or so years. There's no way to tell the difference between a positive test caused by latent TB infection and one caused by BCG. If an adolescent or adult has a positive skin test, the recommendation is to treat, whether or not the patient had BCG. The statement that BCG will cause a positive reaction "most of the time" is only true for the 5 or so years after the vaccine is administered.
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