Poultry workers test positive for TB
131 at Greenville plant show signs of exposure after active case found
Published: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 - 2:00 am
By Liv Osby
By Liv Osby
HEALTH WRITER
greenvillenews.com
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.
Berry said investigators were not surprised by the number of positive skin tests because so many of the employees are foreign-born. People born in other countries are nearly nine times more likely to have TB than those born in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"We suspect many may have been infected in their home countries before they came to the U.S.," he said...
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.
Berry said investigators were not surprised by the number of positive skin tests because so many of the employees are foreign-born. People born in other countries are nearly nine times more likely to have TB than those born in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"We suspect many may have been infected in their home countries before they came to the U.S.," he said...
posted by jillosophy at 6/21/2007 09:38:00 AM
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