Poultry industry workers in four Alabama Counties are being asked by the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) to be screened for tuberculosis (TB) after seven confirmed cases were identified in people who worked in one or more poultry plants.
According to the ADPH, anyone who worked in the poultry industry in Colbert, Franklin, Lawrence or Lauderdale counties between now and June 2022 should be screened.
“As people who work in these plants are frequently in close contact with one another, the Alabama Department of Public Health cautions that these individuals may have been or currently be at risk for contracting TB,” the ADPH stated in its release.
ADPH described TB as a type of bacteria that is usually spread from one infected person’s lungs to another’s. A person can be infected after speaking to someone with TB, or being around an infected person when they cough.
As with any identified cases of TB in the state, ADPH is implementing precautionary testing, investigation, and control measures. Anyone of any age can get TB and the cases in this outbreak have not been limited to any individual racial or ethnic group.
Testing is done by a blood test and will be available on the following days and locations from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.:
- Lauderdale County Health Department, Monday, August 7, and Wednesday, August 9, 2023
- Colbert County Health Department, Thursday, August 10, 2023
- Lawrence County Health Department, Monday, August 14, 2023
- Franklin County Health Department, Thursday, August 17, 2023
