PubMed Health⌕ Search
Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 14534214

A no-name tuberculosis tracking system.

Dennis Y Kim·Renee Ridzon·Beverly Giles·Teresa Mireles·Kelli Garrity·A Leroy Hathcock·David Crowder·Robert Jackson·Zachary Taylor
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Foreign-born persons from countries where tuberculosis (TB) is endemic make up a significant percentage of poultry industry workers in Delaware, a leading poultry-producing state. Many of these workers enter the United States without documentation and assume multiple identities, making it difficult for public health staff to investigate TB contacts who work in the poultry plants. The Sussex County Health Unit of the Delaware Division of Public Health developed a no-name TB tracking system to facilitate identification and treatment of poultry plant workers with TB infection and disease in a high-risk population whose members assume one or more aliases. Completion rates for treatment of latent TB infection in this group increased from 48% to 64% 2 years after the program's implementation.

Explore related subjects

Agricultural Workers' DiseasesAnimalsContact TracingCooperative BehaviorDelawareHumansMass ScreeningMeat-Packing IndustryOccupational Health ServicesPopulation SurveillancePoultryPublic Health AdministrationTransients and MigrantsTuberculin TestTuberculosisJournal Article

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Dennis Y Kim, Renee Ridzon, Beverly Giles, Teresa Mireles, Kelli Garrity, A Leroy Hathcock, David Crowder, Robert Jackson, Zachary Taylor. 2003. A no-name tuberculosis tracking system.. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.93.10.1637

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed2006

Agricultural exposures and gastric cancer risk in Hispanic farm workers in California.

Previous studies have indicated that farm workers may be at increased risk of gastric cancer. Meta-analyses, ecological, case-control, and cohort studies suggest that some aspects of the agricultural environment may be implicated in the elevated risk. Hispanic farm workers in California are exposed to a multitude of potentially toxic substances in the work site, including excessive sunlight, fertilizers, diesel fumes, and pesticides. A previous analysis of a cohort of California farm workers who had been members of a farm labor union, the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) found a proportionate cancer incidence ratio for stomach cancer of 1.69 when using the California Hispanic population as the standard. The aim of the current study was to further evaluate associations between gastric cancer and the types of crops and commodities UFW members cultivate and the associated pesticide use as recorded by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR). We conducted a nested case-control study of gastric cancer embedded in the UFW cohort and identified 100 cases of newly diagnosed gastric cancer between 1988 and 2003. We identified 210 control participants matched on age, gender, ethnicity, and who were known to be alive and resident in California up to the date of the cases' diagnosis. Both stratified analyses and unconditional logistic regression were used to calculate adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Work in the citrus industry was associated with increased gastric cancer (OR=2.88; 95% CI=1.02-8.12) although no other specific crops or commodities were associated with this disease. Working in areas with high use of the phenoxyacetic acid herbicide 2,4-D was associated with gastric cancer (OR=1.85; 95% CI=1.05-3.25); use of the organochlorine insecticide chlordane was also associated with the disease (OR=2.96; 95% CI=1.48-5.94). Gastric cancer was associated with use of the acaricide propargite and the herbicide triflurin (OR=2.86; 95% CI=1.56-5.23 and 1.69, 95% CI=0.99-2.89, respectively). Gastric cancer in California Hispanic farm workers is associated with work in the citrus fruit industry and among those who work in fields treated with 2,4-D, chlordane, propargite, and trifluin. These findings may have larger public health implications especially in those areas of the country where these pesticides are heavily used and where they may be found in the ambient atmosphere.

Agricultural Workers' Diseases↗
PubMed2006

Occupational titles as risk factors for Parkinson's disease.

BACKGROUND: Job title or employment sector may be associated with Parkinson's disease (PD). METHODS: In a case-control study, in four European centres, lifetime occupational histories were coded using modified International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) and Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). We employed multiple logistic regression analyses adjusting for age, gender, smoking and family history of PD. RESULTS: A total of 649 cases and 1587 controls were recruited. Scottish data showed a non-significant increased risk for agriculture (DOT: OR 1.32, 95% CI 0.81-2.16; ISIC: OR 1.30, 95% CI 0.84-2.02) and reduced risk for 'transport and communication' (ISIC: OR 0.60, 95% CI 0.37-0.97). Subsequent four-centre analyses showed reduced risk for processing occupations (DOT: OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.5-0.95). An association with pesticide exposure, found using detailed exposure assessment, was not apparent using job classification. CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to retrospective exposure assessment, job or industrial sector is a weak indicator of toxic exposures such that true associations may be missed.

Agricultural Workers' Diseases↗
PubMed2006

Avian circoviruses of the genus Circovirus: A potential trigger in Pigeon breeder's lung (PBL)/Bird fancier's lung (BFL).

Pigeon breeder's lung (PBL) or Bird fancier's lung (BFL) is one of the most common extrinsic allergic alveolitis or hypersensitivity pneumonitis. It is caused after prolonged inhalation of avian antigens and provokes a hypersensitivity reaction in the lungs of sensitised people. Although the pathogenic mechanism is unclear, the epidemiology of BFL shows that it occurs worldwide, and has been described in adults keeping birds and also in their children. Laboratory findings associated with the disease classified as a type III immunologic reaction that produces blood precipitin antibodies against birds' serum, feathers, intestinal mucin and/or faeces. In particular, the fine dust from pigeon feathers has strong antigenic properties. There is an interaction between host and antigen that seems to be influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Avian circoviruses (ACV) of the genus Circovirus, has been detected in free-ranging and captive birds worldwide, such as pigeons, canaries, psittacines, Senegal doves, finches, gulls, Australian ravens and geese. T lymphocytes are the main target cells of the ACV and in the above avian species circovirus-like particles were detected in blood, macrophages, feathers, crop secretions, intestinal contents and/or faeces. Most of the ACV was demonstrated that are pantropic and viral antigen in pigeon tissues was most commonly detected in respiratory organs, including the trachea, pharynx and lung. The transmission of the circovirus between the birds usually occurs through inhalation of feathers dust. There is evidence that animal circoviruses may originate when vertebrates become "infected" with DNA from a plant nanovirus. So, it seems that further investigation for the avian circoviruses is needed to determine if they are host specific or not. This study attempts to demonstrate ACV or ACV-like particles as potential triggers in the BFL aetiology, and the possible involvement in BFL's pathogenic mechanism.

Agricultural Workers' Diseases↗