By Associated Press
Decatur, AL – Wayne Farms will require all employees at its chicken processing plant to undergo tuberculosis skin tests, following news from health officials that a second employee may have active TB, a highly contagious and deadly disease if untreated.
The Morgan County Health Department will administer the tests Monday. The plant has 849 employees, 200 of which have already received skin or sputum tests and won't be retested.
The TB scare began when a former employee tested positive for TB about two months after leaving the company. He was hospitalized and county health officials administered TB skin tests at Wayne Farms on October 11th. Of those tested, 72 had direct contact with the hospitalized employee. The tests identified 47 employees infected with TB.
According to the state Department of Public Health, the most recently diagnosed employee wasn't one of those who had close contact with the former employee.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)