INVASION USA
Chicken-plant workers test 'positive' for TB
212 out of 765 processing employees infected - company says HIV-privacy
laws nix screening
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November 4, 2007
WorldNetDaily.com

Alabama health officials have identified 212 workers who have tested
positive for tuberculosis at a single poultry plant owned by one of the
largest processors in the U.S.

In two batteries of skin tests last month, given to 765 fresh processing
employees at the Decatur, Ala., plant owned by Wayne Farms LLC by the State
Department of Public Health's Tuberculosis Control Division, 28 percent
were found to be infected, including one with active tuberculosis disease,
which is contagious. Doctors have yet to evaluate X-rays for 165 current
workers who tested positive to determine if any more are contagious.

The testing was prompted by an earlier active TB case - a former Wayne
Farms worker.

Both employees with active TB are Hispanics born in countries where the
disease is prevalent, heath officials said.

When the disease is latent, those with TB are not contagious, but the TB
bacteria remains in the body for life unless it is treated. Once it becomes
active it may cause permanent damage to the lungs and other organs and the
airborne bacteria is easily spread by coughing, laughing or even talking.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 50 percent of those who have
close contact with someone with active TB for 15 minutes will become
infected.

Accompanied by the rise in illegal immigration, tuberculosis is making a
comeback in the U.S., often eluding diagnosis by doctors who are unfamiliar
with the disease.

Last year, WND reported more than three-quarters of the 2,903 cases in
California in 2005 were among foreign natives, with a total of 14,093 cases
nationwide.

Scott Jones, interim director of the Tuberculosis Control Division told the
Decatur Daily he was not surprised at the large number of 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."

Of particular concern to public health officials are emerging strains of
drug-resistant TB brought to the U.S. by illegal aliens who bypass the
screening regularly done with legal immigrants.

The drug-resistant TB recently killed more than 50 people in South Africa.
It has been found in limited numbers in the U.S. - 74 reported cases since
1993. The strain is nearly impossible to cure because it is immune to the
best first- and second-line TB drugs. It is as easily transmitted through
the air as the old TB.

There is another form of TB concerning U.S. health officials. It is called
"multi-drug resistant." It responds to more treatments but can cost up to
$250,000 and take two years to cure. This is the strain increasingly common
throughout the world - rising more than 50 percent from about 273,000 in
2000 to 425,000 in 2004, according to a study published in August in the
Journal of Infectious Diseases.

In the U.S., 128 people were found to have it in 2004, a 13 percent
increase from the previous year.

Stan Hayman, sales and marketing director for Wayne Farms, told the Decatur
Daily the company had offered to reimburse the state for the measures taken
at the plant.

Jones, who noted his office has only two X-ray technicians in the Division
of TB Control to cover the entire state, said the offer was appreciated,
but "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."

Hayman earlier told Huntsville's WHNT-TV News the company was looking for
ways to pre-test employees before they're hired but said the law imposed
limits on what could be done.

"The laws today don't truly allow for pre-employment screening. You know
HIV and all of these over the years have built cases where personal
information is very guarded," he said. "So we struggle a little bit with
the laws today to say can we truly implement a pre-screening,
pre-employment process."

Hayman also said, despite the large number of foreign-born Hispanic
employees working at the Decatur facility, all have been verified as
legally working in the U.S.

"When we offer application of employment to an individual we use what's
called the pilot program," Hayman told WHNT-TV.

The pilot program checks Social Security numbers. Wayne Farms requires job
applicants to fill out an I-9 form confirming their identity and right to
work in the U.S. and to provide their Social Security number.

"The system will give you a go, no-go at that point when you put that
information into it," said Hayman. "So we don't allow those people that
come back with non compliant to ever start work for us without contesting
it or giving us additional information on really who they are."

The two Hispanic workers with active TB went through the same Wayne Farms
hiring process.

"They all went through that process. They all came back verified the
information came back compliant. It was in the system. So they all went
through the exact process we are talking about," said Hayman.

According to the company website, "Wayne Farms LLC is one of the top six
fully integrated poultry processors in the United States. With a focus on
quality every step of the way, 'from farm to fork,' more than 250 million
chickens or 1.8 billion pounds of poultry are processed annually in our 13
facilities."

Humans cannot become infected with TB bacteria from chickens, and it cannot
be transmitted through chicken meat.