And ya thought chicken was healthy...

[bj229r]

link

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 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.

It goes on further to say the disease can't be spread to the chicken....but DAaaaaayyyuuummmmm... 1 in 3 have TB in this place:O (I'm guessing English isn't first language for many of them)

[bj229r]

oops wrong forum....eh.

[ColKLink]

eat possum instead, it tastes "just like chicken". My troops havent noticed in 33 yrs, (just a joke kids). But for god's sake please leave my sheep alone.

[68Boomer]

Keep in mind, interesting this wasn't mentioned, that a vast number of foreign born people WILL test positive to the Mantoux TB Skin Test due to the the fact that a vast number of these people were admistered the BCG Vaccine in their native Countries.

The BCG Vaccine is not used in the U.S.

[Delirium]

68Boomer said it perfectly... same in the hospital, a large number of healthcare workers end up having to get a chest x-ray every year because of their history of grossly positive PPDs (aka Mantoux TB skin test). More and more healthcare workers (nurses, doctors, aides) are foreign born now than ever before and are exposed to TB and/or the BCG vaccine.

I know of one person in particular who went into respiratory arrest, not only was their PPD positive, they also had an allergy to something within the serum used for the test.

One out of 167 is actually positive for the disease? That isn't a bad ratio, you would be really surprised to know how many have it and don't realize.

[bj229r]

Originally posted by Delirium
......One out of 167 is actually positive for the disease? That isn't a bad ratio, you would be really surprised to know how many have it and don't realize. ......

 Actually it was 47 out of 167:eek: ...so am I to understand that the 'BCG' vaccine (Europe?) causes false positives on our test? Thats interesting

[68Boomer]

Originally posted by bj229r
Actually it was 47 out of 167:eek: ...so am I to understand that the 'BCG' vaccine (Europe?) causes false positives on our test? Thats interesting

Yes it will cause a false positive. The BCG Vaccine use's the actual virus itself to get the immune system to create the antibodies to the disease. The Mantoux Test is created by using the protien from the virus, instead of the actual virus. The Mantoux test reacts to the antibody that the body creates.

The BCG vaccine was discontinued for use by the FDA due to the high number of false positives vs the low number of actual cases being discovered.

You can also pop a positive test by the mere fact of being exposed to the disease. Keep in mind though, a postive test DOES NOT mean you have the disease, just the anti bodies in your immune system. This is why a chest XRay is done for a positive test.

Once you have tested positive and received a clear CXR, (Chest XRay), the only thing you need to do once a year is answer about 8 questions relating to whether or not you have experienced any symptoms of the disease, excessive nite sweats, mild grade temp for a long time and such.

It is recommended that you get your TB Skin Test at least once a year. Where I work as a Trauma Nurse...I get it every 6 months.

There are a number of sites w/ a lot of info on the rise of TB cases being seen. The best one I have found is Web MD.

[rpm]

It's a mind boggling thing.