Posted on 11/03/2007 7:05:23 AM PDT by B4Ranch
All of the employees at the Wayne Farms fresh processing plant in Decatur have received tuberculosis skin tests and 212 of them tested positive.
Health workers read and tabulated a final batch of tests Wednesday, said Scott Jones, interim director of the State Department of Public Health's Tuberculosis Control Division. Of the 598 tests administered Monday, 165 tested positive.
In skin tests administered to 167 fresh processing employees Oct. 11, 47 tested positive. One of the 47 has active tuberculosis disease, which is contagious.
All told, 28 percent of those who received skin tests at the fresh processing plant tested positive.
Jones said all 165 employees with positive TB results in the most recent tests would receive chest X-rays on Thursday. Doctors will evaluate those X-rays early next week to determine if any of them have signs of active TB disease.
"We have two (X-ray) technicians in the Division of TB Control to cover the entire state," Jones said. "For this situation, we've rearranged some clinics. We've made this a priority, so we have both of our technicians (assigned to Decatur and) working as a team to get them done."
Wayne Farms Sales and Marketing Director Stan Hayman said Wednesday the company offered to reimburse the state for the cost of the tuberculosis control efforts.
Jones said Thursday that he has a better idea.
"I appreciate their offer," he said.
"If Wayne Farms is interested in investing something, my recommendation to them would be to invest within their own facility to establish a pre-employment screening routine.
"If their intent is to invest, I wish they'd think about ways they can invest toward the future as opposed to reimbursing for a one-time event."
Latent TB infection is not contagious, but it remains in the body for life in the absence of treatment. About 10 percent of latent TB infections eventually become active TB disease, usually because of a compromised immune system.
Testing began after doctors diagnosed a former Wayne Farms employee with active TB disease. The testing revealed that another employee also had active disease. Health officials believe the second employee has a different strain of TB than the first employee and caught the disease from a different source.
In addition to testing other employees at the fresh processing plant, health officials said they tested all others known to have had contact with the two men. Jones refused to say whether either individual has school-age children.
Jones said the Health Department soon would give skin tests to all employees at two other Wayne Farms plants in Morgan County. The company employs 1,300 in the county.
"(Health Officer) Don Williamson asked us to evaluate the entire work force because of the concerns in the community and we're going to proceed with that," Jones said. "This is a very large undertaking. We've expanded this in response to concerns in the community, as a precaution."
Hayman said Wayne Farms welcomes the expanded testing.
"The community concern about this is an issue, but we also have 1,300 people who don't want to have to worry about their health when they come to work," Hayman said. "They have families who want them to work in a safe environment."
Jones said he was not surprised at the number of Wayne Farms employees who tested positive.
"The majority of the folks that we're dealing with in this situation are foreign born," Jones said. "I would expect about 30 percent of them to test positive."
Both employees with active TB disease are Hispanics born in countries with a high incidence of TB, health officials said.
Coughing, laughing or talking can transmit the airborne tuberculosis bacteria. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 15 minutes of close contact with a person who has active TB disease will cause up to 50 percent of people to become infected.
People who are contagious almost always are obviously ill, said Dr. Scott Harris, an infectious disease specialist who works in the TB clinic at the Morgan County Health Department.
Humans cannot catch TB bacteria from chickens, and the bacteria cannot be transmitted through chicken meat.
I was in Decatur last year. I couldn’t beleive the number of hispanics all over town just walking the streets in the middle of the day. Even spanish radio stations and newspapers.
Ironic. I remember as a kid riding by a Tuberculosis Sanitorium just south of Decatur atop a hill.
Is my reason, plus I just don't care for it, but I do love game birds, pheasant and quail.
I only like chicken if it is highly spiced ......... with something like my wifes homemade BBQ sauce. Pheasant, partidge and quail are good but I don’t like ducks or geese.
“Final TB count: 1”
Thanks for the dose of reality into the conversation. Unfortunately, no one seems to care about the facts. Especially the fact that only 1 person in the plant was contagious, and would only contaminate someone who actually came into contact with him.
They just go on talking about how the US is now a third world country. I don’t know if its my misperception, or whether it is getting harder and harder to find the truth in many of these threads.
Ping
I suppose you minimize the risk of sexually transmitted diseases also.
“I am very happy that I don’t have any family members in public schools these days.”
Unfortunately, my sister in Decatur works at a govt. run day care center, and her kids have children in public schools.
Not sure what you mean. I don’t have much risk for STDs as I have been faithfully married for 20 years. I work in Emergency Medicine, so TB is a big risk for me. I manage that risk by knowing the symptoms and signs of TB infection, using proper protocols with patients, and keeping informed about infection rates, and populations that are likely to have active TB cases.
I don’t minimize risks. I analyze facts. The fact is that someone who is exposed to TB is not the same as someone who has active TB. There is no reason to fear 211 out of these 212 people, and to say otherwise is misleading at best, lying at worst.
Perhaps due to the fact that my mother, who was a RN died from TB, I am overly cautious. Maybe you should set your risk factor a little higher too.
I am sorry about your mother. My risk factor is high enough that I always evaluate for TB as a potential factor when presented with ID symptoms. There isn’t much else to do, other than find a new line of work, and I am way too old for that.
I take precautions when working in areas where the population lives closely and where the population is generally poor. These are the environments where TB tends to be prevalent. Immigrants from some countries also have higher liklihood of having TB, but they tend to be found in the poorer neighborhoods as well.
I speak Spanish and try to build relationships in some of the higher risk neighborhoods. I ask around regularly about anyone who might show symptoms of TB.
However, all of this doesn’t change the fact that only those with active TB are contagious. It also doesn’t change the fact that people with active TB are invariably and visibly ill. Those that have latent TB should be treated, to avoid an occurance of the disease later on, but they are of no risk to me or anyone else.
There is no need to treat someone for exposure to TB. If the x-rays show latent infection, then they will need a lengthy course of treatment.
Next question is do we keep them here and provide treatment so they will not infect others, or do we deport them, and run the risk that they will come back, have active TB, and fail to get treatment for fear of getting deported again? Active TB is very contagious.
< /elected officials>
Thanks for the PING
My daughter used to take one of her children to an old-fashioned dentist in Decatur...
He was an old man who still administered laughing gas to the kids instead of injections...
She goes to a local dentist now...
“Immigrants from some countries also have higher liklihood of having TB, but they tend to be found in the poorer neighborhoods as well.”
Ahhhhhhhhhh NO
REAL immigrants are tested BEFORE they leave their own countries to come here...
If they have TB or other diseases they do not get the go ahead to enter the US...
Your “immigrants” are probably illegal aliens...
Hey this is Decatur, Alabama, not Decatur, Tennessee
LOL
ping
Easy answer, the American tax payer is not the world free medical provider.
You deport them!
Active TB can be transmitted via saliva, coughing etc.
This is just another nail in the coffin of our country unless we take it back.
I wish I had a place where I could grow my own vegetables and have my own chickens. Every week it’s something else being recalled for salmonella or e-coli and now we have a plant full of hispanics with TB. One can only cringe when thinking this is just one of many. I’m willing to bet if we saw how most of our food is produced we would not eat it.
888888888888
Pinging the girls...don’t know if you all have seen this yet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.