Chook Me!

Is this to close to home? 160 poultry plant employees tested for TB?

decatur, AL- about 160 workers at a decatur poultry farm have been tested for tuberculosis was after a former employee was diagnosed with active TB, a state helth department official said. the former employee, who was hospitalized and is being treated, left the wayne farms poultry plant several weeks ago. scott jones said health officials initiated skin tests on the employess at the plant. jones, interim director of the health department's TB control division, said they will return to the plant friday to evaluate the employees reactions to the testing solution. he would not name the former employee or say where he was hospitalized or where he resides. any positive results resukts from wednesday's skin tests would only mean an employee has at some time been exposed to turberculosis, jones told the decatur daily in a story thursday. any wayne farms employees who test positive will receive lung X-rays on oct- 16th. a person who tests positive for TB but has no symptoms is not contagious. to keep latent TB from becoming active, health officials usually administer a six- month course of isoniazid in pill form. jones said the former employee was born out- side the united states. "greater than 50% of cases reported nationaly are among people born outside the USA;" jones said, in 2006. 27% of the cases reported in alabama were among people born outside of the united states. theres more to come folks. wayne farms spokesman frank singleton said the county administered skin test to 80 employees who had worked in close proximity to the TB- infected former employee. the total number tested was higher than 80 because the county opened testing to all employees who requested it, he said. TB is an airborne disease. this town is 50 miles from where i live. it's really scary when it's close to home like this. they gave no name of the infected person. and yes we hills people cook all our food. read the rest, TB is airborne!!!!!

Public Comments

1. Did the originator have a Hispanic last name?
2. I'm pretty sure tuberculosis cannot be transmitted from an infected worker to the consumer via cooked poultry (you all ARE cooking your chicken, yes?). Even if you eat the chicken stone cold raw, tuberculosis is a respiratory illness that is transmitted by close contact with infected individuals. Short of shoving an infected chicken up your nose and down into your lungs, I'm not sure it poses much of a danger.
3. Yes, it is a resportory illness, but anything is possible. I may self would feel safer if any one that was infected with it was notworking in the food industry. Lets look at it like this, if he was working before a cooking stage, it would be less likley, but you still have the risk of cross contamination. If he was working iin the packaging, coldstorage, or shipping then the chance to spread it, would be more likley. For the most part it is not a risk I would be willing to take.
4. Yeah. Forget immigration, for the moment, food handlers should have health check and clearance requirements. This is pretty disgusting.