Workers at Mulberry handbag factory in Somerset screened for TB

[jade35]

Workers at Mulberry handbag factory in Somerset screened for TB
By Western Morning News | Posted: August 05, 2014
By Rod Minchin

Mulberry

Around 300 workers at a Mulberry handbag factory have been screened for tuberculosis after two colleagues tested positive for the infection.

More than 400 staff were invited for screening for the lung condition after the two workers fell ill.

Mulberry said the employees all worked at The Rookery factory in Chilcompton, near Shepton Mallet, Somerset.

“Two Mulberry employees who work at The Rookery, one of Mulberry’s Somerset factories have been diagnosed with TB,” the company said in a statement.


“The first was diagnosed in January 2014 and returned to work fully recovered three weeks later.

“The second employee was diagnosed in May 2014 and is due to return to work shortly.

“Mulberry has fully complied with Public Health England advice on this.”

Public Health England (PHE) said as a precautionary measure TB screening was offered to more than 420 staff at the factory – with over 300 people being screened.

Dr Sarah Harrison, interim deputy director of health protection for the Devon, Cornwall and Somerset PHE Centre, said: “First and foremost, it is important to stress that TB is difficult to catch.

“It is spread from person to person when an infectious person has a cough. The people who are most at risk are those living in the same household.

“It is important to remember that TB is a curable disease which can be treated effectively with antibiotics, particularly if found early.

“Letters from Public Health England have been sent to all staff that were tested.

“Those with a positive test have been referred to local TB services for further investigation and treatment if necessary.

“The general advice is that people should contact their doctor if they are suffering from the symptoms of TB.”

Those who tested positive will be referred to the specialist service for further testing with specialist respiratory physicians.

PHE said that a positive screen result did not mean they have infectious TB or TB disease. In most instances a positive result implies the presence of latent TB, the authority said.

“A positive latent TB test means that someone has had exposure to the TB bacteria at some time in their life, not necessarily through this incident,” a PHE spokeswoman said.

“Positive tests could have been caused by a source case within the factory community or alternatively, there may be a previous source of exposure.”

TB is a disease caused by a bacterial infection and can be treated with antibiotics.

 

[jade35]

@matthew good to know that you can be cured of TB so quickly
"The first was diagnosed in January 2014 and returned to work fully recovered three weeks later".

 

[caveman]

Would this be a preliminary to linking tb with handling leather?
What was that other disease that people were catching? Was it anthrax? I think it was drum makers handling skins.

 

[caveman]

Yes. It was.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7706239.stm

 

[Poorbuthappy]

@andybk - any local bongo drum knowledge?

 

[matthew]

@matthew good to know that you can be cured of TB so quickly
"The first was diagnosed in January 2014 and returned to work fully recovered three weeks later".

Yes, people who have been diagnosed (not easy and not early, thanks to medical intransigence) would possibly disagree.

"It is important to remember that TB is a curable disease which can be treated effectively with antibiotics, particularly if found early."

Very comforting.
The course of antibiotics is long (up to 14 months in Dianne's case) and can be likened to chemotherapy as regards side effects of these drugs. Outcome? Not as bland as that statement implies.

Dianne Summers is not 'cured', but has been left with COPD in one lung, and the lesion in that lung has walled up into a fist shaped scar with a ' black hole in the centre'.
We described it here:
http://bovinetb.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/tuberculosis-anniversary.html

Dianne has been left requiring regular blood tests and X rays to try and monitor any breakdown of this lesion.

Zoonotic tuberculosis is a grade 3 zoonotic pathogen. Ebola, which is making headlines at the moment is grade 4.

http://bovinetb.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/zoonotic-tuberculosis-playing-with.html

 

[andybk]

@andybk - any local bongo drum knowledge?

I have my own theory over this , but dont think airing it on a public forum would be a good idea seeing as our ewes are in their front garden , except to say many local farms have a TB problem ,

 

[Notquiteretired]

http://www.bovinetb.co.uk/article.php?article_id=24

There are three ways humans can get bovine tuberculosis:
* by breathing or inhaling air contaminated with the bacteria after an infected animal or infected person coughs or sneezes very close by. However, cattle owners and TB testers on farms take no precautions when in contact with cattle, wear no masks and do not contract the disease. They do, however, suffer physical injuries because of the high health and safety risks involved with cattle handling
* by drinking unpasteurised milk from an infected cow or eating raw or undercooked meat from an infected animal.
* by handling infected meat in the dressing and processing of animal carcasses, especially if hands aren't washed carefully prior to consuming food. There is very little risk that an individual would contract bovine tuberculosis by this method borne out by the fact that even abattoir workers and vets very rarely contract the disease.

Or if you prefer wikipedia
During the first half of the 20th century, M. bovis is estimated to have been responsible for more losses among farm animals than all other infectious diseases combined. Infection occurs if the bacterium is ingested.

M. bovis is usually transmitted to humans by infected milk, although it can also spread via aerosol droplets. Actual infections in humans are rare, mainly because pasteurisation kills any bacteria in infected milk; also, cattle are randomly tested for the disease and immediately culled if infected, but can still be used for human consumption. However, in areas of the developing world where pasteurisation is not routine, M. bovis is a relatively common cause of human tuberculosis.

 

[Baker9]

There are some types of TB which are resistant to antibiotics, so in theory it is curable but in practice if you have a resistant type of TB then you have a problem.
Do not be complacent about TB, it is a Grade 3 zoonotic pathogen, Ebola is a grade 4. It was a major killer here before antibiotics came on the scene in the 1940s, do we want a return to those days?
I think the health authorities were very slow to react, a case in January, one in May in the same workplace and the workers are only being tested now.
When I was at school in the early seventies one of the teachers was diagnosed with TB, two days later the health authorities arrived and tested every person in the school, 1100 students and all the staff.
I would be interested to know what type of TB these workers had, was it M. Bovis or was it another type?

 

[matthew]

We are in a situation which is largely out of our control with this disease endemic in wildlife, and upspilling into pets and companion mammals.

The Public Health / Wiki reference books are about 50 years out of date as to possible sources of infection. And when your cat or dog coughs in your face, and shares your airspace, there is no tick box to fill in. Likewise for alpacas, hugely susceptible, incredibly infectious and up close and personal with owners and the general public.

And then there is the daft idea of 'fostering' badgers before rehoming them...
Head honcho for that is in Zummerset.

This is a risk we have never faced before, and should not underestimate.


As regards type of tuberculosis: it is usual for a diagnosis of 'MTC' or m. tuberculosis complex to be made. Only when no response to drugs is noted, and the cocktail changed is m. bovis identified. But very often the original diagnosis data remains unchanged.

 

[Paddington]

Yes, people who have been diagnosed (not easy and not early, thanks to medical intransigence) would possibly disagree.

"It is important to remember that TB is a curable disease which can be treated effectively with antibiotics, particularly if found early."

Very comforting.
The course of antibiotics is long (up to 14 months in Dianne's case) and can be likened to chemotherapy as regards side effects of these drugs. Outcome? Not as bland as that statement implies.

Dianne Summers is not 'cured', but has been left with COPD in one lung, and the lesion in that lung has walled up into a fist shaped scar with a ' black hole in the centre'.
We described it here:
http://bovinetb.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/tuberculosis-anniversary.html

Dianne has been left requiring regular blood tests and X rays to try and monitor any breakdown of this lesion.

Zoonotic tuberculosis is a grade 3 zoonotic pathogen. Ebola, which is making headlines at the moment is grade 4.

http://bovinetb.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/zoonotic-tuberculosis-playing-with.html

Matthew, could you explain what the differences are between the different grades of pathogen? ( I tried googling this but got nowhere)

 

[jade35]

@llamedos slight change of subject looking at the twitter feed, can you copy the letter being discussed re TB?

 

[Woolgatherer]

I read a report somewhere that said parts of Eastern Europe had tb problems and that some workers were likely to be suffering from it. Don't know how true this is or how much of a problem it is in the migrant community but maybe that's where the factory workers got it?

 

[Princess Pooper]

I read a report somewhere that said parts of Eastern Europe had tb problems and that some workers were likely to be suffering from it. Don't know how true this is or how much of a problem it is in the migrant community but maybe that's where the factory workers got it?

My sister in law is a GP in the Fens were there are lots of Eastern European workers on the veg fields, in the packhouses etc., Her practice regularly gets patients with TB then their whole workforce at the packhouse or wherever gets screened. She just rolls her eyes at shock horror headlines in the Mail about a Tb outbreak.

 

[matthew]

Matthew, could you explain what the differences are between the different grades of pathogen? ( I tried googling this but got nowhere)

Try this link:
http://www.absa.org/riskgroups/

It's the list which WHO and OIE work to. To put it in context, m. bovis is level 3, ebola is level 4.
The difference is in virulence, threat to human health, spread via hosts and the protective and disinfection procedures recommended to prevent spread and re infection.

 

[Paddington]

Try this link:
http://www.absa.org/riskgroups/

It's the list which WHO and OIE work to. To put it in context, m. bovis is level 3, ebola is level 4.
The difference is in virulence, threat to human health, spread via hosts and the protective and disinfection procedures recommended to prevent spread and re infection.

Thanks.

 

[dinderleat]

My sister works there she said that 50 ish people have reacted to the test could just be latent TB but have got to go for further test (x-rays) my sis was all clear

 

[llamedos]

Why is it only a headline because they work producing expensive baggage? Screening for TB amongst workers who have worked in the cotton industry has been going on for years. Nothing new. Workers go home to which ever foreign country was their homeland and come back and discover they have TB, result = fellow workers screened.

 

[dinderleat]

Mountain and mole hill come to mind , they must be running out of actual news

 

[matthew]

My sister works there she said that 50 ish people have reacted to the test could just be latent TB but have got to go for further test (x-rays) my sis was all clear

Tuberculosis is such a dangerous pathogen precisely because of the scenario described above. The screening skin test (similar to the one we use on cattle) indicates exposure to the bacterium.
X rays will follow but will show visible lesions of a certain size, but only in the area screened, which is usually the chest. zTB can affect the spine, brain or other organs too.
By that time this slow burn progressive disease may have become very serious, be lurking within another unscreened organ, or as you say, 'latent'. Which means it is safely walled up and the candidate not infectious. Until such time as the body is under stress from another source. And in time, age and secondary challenges will break it down to full blown disease which can and does, kill.
This may happen in 5, 10 or 30 years' time - or never.

Just to put diagnosis in context, Ms. Summers (my post above, with zTB from alpacas, which are likely to have contracted it from local badgers) had had BCG as a teenager. Later as part of a Visa application, she had a skin test and X rays prior to working in the USA, and again had precautionary clear X rays after her alpacas were slaughtered in 2010.
It was two years after that, in 2012 that she was taken ill with what was thought to be pneumonia. Diagnosis was eventually confirmed by X ray and sputum (PCR) tests.
As a result of prolonged drug treatment, Dianne is no longer 'infectious', but neither is she 'cured'. The debilitating OCPD will remain all her life, and she undergoes constant monitoring of the lesion in her lung.