The Lyon County Health Department’s subcommittee on population health learned about cases of latent tuberculosis and the effect of sanitation fees during Monday’s monthly meeting.
Renee Hively of the Flint Hills Community Health Center said there are 239 documented latent cases of tuberculosis in Lyon County to date. “Latent” means the disease cannot be spread from person to person.
Hively also offered a timeline of what the health center did when the Tyson worker with an active case of TB died. Hively said officials do not know for sure that the worker died of TB, just that the worker had an active case of TB at the time of his death.
On Jan. 5, the health center was notified by a coroner that they had a probable active case of TB. On Jan. 17, the health center was notified that there was an active case of TB in the worker who died at Tyson. The health center started compiling a list of contacts who would need to be tested for TB. On Jan. 18, the health center provided training sessions at Tyson about the difference between latent and active TB. On Jan. 19, a presentation was give to the Emporia School District regarding TB. On Jan. 29, a presentation about TB was given at Wal-Mart because of concerns of people shopping there.
Hively said there were no surprises in the contacts who were tested for TB. The people who did test positive for TB were found to have negative chest X-rays. She said that the state pays for the TB testing of high risk individuals.
There were 81 cases of active TB cases in the state of Kansas last year, Hively said.
“They’re not all contagious,” she said. “TB is really hard to get. There has to be an extended frequency of exposure. If you were on a plane with a person with active TB that plane would have to be in the air for six hours (for other people to be exposed).”
In a response to a committee member who asked about workers with TB at Tyson, Hively said the disease isn’t food borne.
“It’s not connected with that,” she said.
The committee also discussed sanitation code fees. In 2006, the department of environmental health did 53 real estate transfers at $150 for a total of $7,950; 16 new system inspections at $395 for a total of $6,320; 27 reconstructions at $395 each for a total of $10,665; and two reconstructions due to cycle inspections at $790.
Lyon County commissioners voted to do away with fees relating to real estate transfers and reconstructions. Based on the 2006 figures, this will cost the department of environmental health more than $18,000. That equals nearly 10 percent of the department’s budget, which is set at $196,000.
Lougene Marsh, executive director of Lyon County Health Department, said members of the department are meeting with Lyon County commissioners next week to discuss the issue.
“It’s closer to 10 percent of our revenue that we are counting on to run environmental services,” Marsh told committee members.
Marsh said inspections are required by the Lyon County Sanitation Code.