<http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/2007/11/27/emporia-kansas-has-a-pu blic-health-problem-tb-is-it-courtesy-of-tyson-foods-and-immigrant-somali-wo rkers/> http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/2007/11/27/emporia-kansas-has-a-pub lic-health-problem-tb-is-it-courtesy-of-tyson-foods-and-immigrant-somali-wor kers/Emporia,
Emporia, <http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/2007/11/27/emporia-kansas-has-a-pu blic-health-problem-tb-is-it-courtesy-of-tyson-foods-and-immigrant-somali-wo rkers/> Kansas has a Public Health problem: TB. Is it courtesy of Tyson Foods and immigrant Somali workers? By Jerry Gordon <http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/wp-content/2007/11/tyson-foods-som ali-muslim-picture.jpg> tyson-foods-somali-muslim-picture.jpgEmporia, Kansas is a town located in the East Flint Hills about two hours equidistant from both Kansas City and Wichita. Tyson Foods has a major meat packing plant there with more than 2000 workers. Tyson transferred 400 Somali meat packers from its plant in North Fork, Nebraska to Emporia. Problem is that Tyson may have inadvertently also transferred a highly contagious disease - active and latent TB - carried by these Somali workers into Emporia. There was at least one Emporia death from TB reported in 2006. Screenings of Tyson Somali workers for TB by a local Community Health Center revealed a number of positive tests after skin testing and chest X-rays were taken. The Community Health Center actions were spotlighted in a recent Topeka Journal article <http://cjonline.%20com/stories/%20112507/kan_%20220330857.%20shtml> . The Topeka Journal writer, Mike Shields, who is also on the staff of the Kansas Health Institute, did not include the death of a Tyson Foods Somali worker from a latent case of TB reported by the Emporia <http://www.emporiagazette.com/news/2007/jan/19/more_questions> Gazette in January of this year. There was also something else revealed by State Representative Peg Mast of Lyon County. Did Tyson Foods cooperate on treatment of those positive TB cases developed from the local health center screenings following the death of the Somali worker? Somalis have cultural difficulties in taking medications of any sort. Thus, there is no assurance that contagious TB, whether latent or active in the group of screened Tyson workers has been eradicated. The January Emporia Gazette article <http://www.emporiagazette.com/news/2007/jan/19/more_questions> revealed how lax the worker health screenings were at Tyson's Emporia meat packing plant. The Tyson plant conducts TB screenings annually for the nursing staff and designated translators, according to Gary Mickelson, Tyson spokesman. All new workers complete a health history questionnaire that asks questions about medical background, including whether they have tuberculosis or have been tested for the disease. "In addition, when we learn of workers with latent TB or TB-related concerns, we connect them with the county health department, which can provide information, testing and help with follow-up care," he said. Tyson encourages those with latent TB "to make sure they continue to take their medicine ." "In light of the recent TB-related death, we plan to have additional discussions with county health officials about other possible measures." Phil Griffin, director of the Kansas TB prevention and control program of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment was not in favor of legislation to require latent TB patients to take medication, as is required of active TB patients. This could engender a significant public health problem for Tyson, Emporia and the nation because of the lack of health screenings of communicable diseases like TB, hepatitis and HIV for legal humanitarian refugee populations. It could also mean that US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) public and worker health regulations may have been violated by Tyson. A further problem for giant beef, pork and poultry processor Tyson Foods, already embroiled in US and worker class action suits at its Tennessee facilities arising from employment of illegal Hispanic immigrants. Rep. Mast and I were interviewed by Topeka KMAJ talk radio host, Jim Cates <http://www.jimcates.com/> regarding this development and the raft of problems associated in assimilating Somali Muslims into this Kansas community of 30,000. The introduction of Somali Muslim meat packing workers by Tyson has roiled the community. Aid and assistance from grants made by the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services Immigration unit to NGOs like Catholic Charities and other groups engaged in 'inter-cultural relations' such as the Spring Institute of Denver, Colorado have not solved the problems. A recent Emporia Gazette poll indicated that a further planned influx of Somali Muslims increased the unease of the town's population. Overwhelmingly, the pulse of the community revealed that the presence of the Somalis constitutes a real problem. In response to the question, "Do you want Emporia to become a direct resettlement community for refugees?" Eighty-nine percent of the 1,765 respondents said 'no', seven percent said 'yes' and two percent said they were 'undecided'. Problems with Somali humanitarian refugees have popped up in Lincoln, Nebraska, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Kansas City, Nashville, Tennessee and most visibly Lewiston, Maine. Lewiston is struggling to cope with a burgeoning Somali population which has over 50 percent unemployment and is a burden on local and state welfare programs. Rep. Mast in the KMAJ interview drew attention to the high incidence of TB cases and the death reported in the wake of the Tyson transfer of Somali workers from the company's plant in North Branch, Nebraska to Emporia, Kansas. She also noted that other communicable diseases such as Hepatitis and HIV might be resident in the Somali immigrant worker population who gained entry under the US Refugee Act of 1980. Rep. Mast obtained data on the number of TB cases reported to the State of Kansas, Department of Health and Environment for the year 2006 and the ten months reported to date in 2007. Using data on the populations for four Kansas Counties, including Lyon with Emporia, the largest town, we calculated the incidence rates of TB cases per 1,000 population. The results are displayed below. The incidence rates for Emporia are nearly 5 times the level reported in the other three populous Kansas counties. <http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/wp-content/2007/11/kansas-tb-incid ence-picture-3-jpeg.jpg> kansas-tb-incidence-picture-3-jpeg.jpg This significant difference in TB incidence rates in Kansas highlights the need for a comprehensive investigation by the USCDC. Further, it raises questions of whether or not there are similar dramatic patterns of TB incidence in other Somali communities in the US. During the KMAJ interview, I noted that this was not just a local public health matter, but a national one. It required the dispatch of health investigators from the US CDC in Atlanta to review Emporia Community Health Center records and request access to Tyson Foods health records. It also raises the national problem of the lack of requisite health screenings for humanitarian refugees prior to their admittance to the US. In the event that these matters have fallen through the proverbial cracks, it raises concerns about the lack of active health screenings for such communicable diseases by major food processing employers like Tyson Foods. It raises an ultimate concern about the operations of the Federal Humanitarian Refugee Program that involves the State Department, Bureau of Population, Refugees and <http://www.state.gov/g/prm> Migration, the local country US Embassy - based Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services <http://www.uscis.gov/> (CIS) intake teams and the Office of Refugee <http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/orr%20%20-> Resettlement (ORR) of the US Department of Health and Human Services. The ORR provides contract intake services and initial support aid in the US. Last year, according to information available from published reports, such humanitarian refugee assistance and support was funded at a level of over $500 million. The Somali immigrants are a significant proportion of those included in the humanitarian refugee program for Africa. For the Federal Fiscal year ended, September 30, 2007, according to information from the ORR, 7, 500 Somalis entered this country out of a total of 17,000 such refugees allotted to Africa. The aggregate <http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/data/05arc10appendixA.htm> total of Somali refugees as of 2005 was close to 70,000. Given figures for both 2006 and 2007, the current aggregate may approximate 90,000. The concern is what proportion of these received proper medical screening before entering this country. The Federal humanitarian refugee 'system' has cracks in it. These gaps may facilitate the entry of immigrants with communicable diseases to fill unskilled labor positions for employers in critical food processing industries in the US. What more lies at fault with the program? November 27th, 2007 at 7:06 . opinion <http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/category/opinion/> . analysis <http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/category/analysis/> . Emporia <http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/category/emporia/> . Kansas <http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/category/kansas/> . Tyson foods <http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/category/tyson-foods/> . Somali workers TB <http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/category/somali-workers-tb/> . public health problem with humanitarian refugees <http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/category/public-health-problem-wit h-humanitarian-refugees/> . 0 <http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/2007/11/27/emporia-kansas-has-a-pu blic-health-problem-tb-is-it-courtesy-of-tyson-foods-and-immigrant-somali-wo rkers/#comments> Comments . edit <http://blog.americancongressfortruth.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post =773> Regards, Jerry Gordon Cell: 203-763-9135 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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