UK - Cows with TB have entered human food chain: Infected meat served up in schools, hospitals and to the military.

UK - Cows with TB have entered human food chain: Infected meat served up in schools, hospitals and to the military.(DM).

Beef from cows that are infected with bovine tuberculosis could be being served in schools and hospitals, it has emerged.

The Government has admitted that meat from 28,000 diseased cattle is sold every year to catering firms and some supermarkets.

The Department for Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is believed to be making £10million a year selling the infected carcasses. Officials claim the risk of catching the illness from eating infected meat is ‘extremely low’.

But Tesco has refused to sell the beef due to public health concerns and Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Burger King and McDonald’s have also chosen to ban it.

Herds are checked for bovine TB every one to four years. Any infected cattle are slaughtered, and the Government pay farmers up to £1,700 per animal in compensation.

DEFRA can then sell the meat on to catering firms, processors or supermarkets without providing any warning labels.

It is not clear what companies have bought the meat but Sodexo, Aramark and Compass – which supply food to hospitals and schools – could not deny serving it. Around 70 Britons become infected with bovine tuberculosis every year.

The symptoms are similar to the more common ‘human’ form, which causes a severe cough, loss of appetite and weight loss. Most people catch the illness by consuming infected milk or beef or by coming into contact with diseased cattle. The strain, which used to be very common, killed around 2,500 Britons each year in the 1920s and 1930s. Many patients caught it from infected milk.

The Government subsequently introduced milk pasteurisation and the heating process now kills the bacteria carrying the disease.

But the illness is on the rise in cattle, and experts are concerned it could soon become a health risk for humans again.

The Food Standards Agency, which is responsible for food safety, said if a cow was infected in one area of its body then the rest of its meat was fit for consumption.

Despite this, in 2005 one of DEFRA’s own researchers – Ricardo de la Rua-Domenech – found meat from other areas of the cow could still infect humans.

The Government is so worried about the threat bovine tuberculosis poses to humans that it has ordered the cull of tens of thousands of badgers, who are thought to spread the disease between cows.Hmmmmmm........Bon Appetit?Read the full story here.

Tuberculosis outbreak in downtown L.A. sparks federal effort to locate 4,500 people who may have been exposed to the disease.

Tuberculosis outbreak in downtown L.A. sparks federal effort to locate 4,500 people who may have been exposed to the disease.(LATimes).LOS ANGELES, CA - Public health officials have launched a new, coordinated effort to contain a persistent outbreak of tuberculosis in downtown L.A.’s skid row, including searching for more than 4,500 people who may have been exposed to the disease.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have dispatched scientists to Los Angeles to help local health officials figure out why the disease is spreading and how to stop it.
Nearly 80 tuberculosis cases have been identified and 11 people have died since 2007, most of them homeless people who live in and around skid row. Scientists have recently linked the outbreak to one tuberculosis strain that is unique to Los Angeles, with a few isolated cases outside the area.
“This is the largest outbreak in a decade,” said Jonathan Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
“We are really putting all of our resources into this.” Health workers have identified about 4,650 people who probably were exposed and are trying to track them down for testing and treatment.
Local and federal officials are particularly concerned because the cases are all linked to one relatively small geographic area and one vulnerable population. Officials are worried the outbreak could spread beyond skid row if action isn’t taken.
Homeless people are especially at risk of getting tuberculosis and of being undiagnosed because they tend to have poor hygiene and nutrition, limited access to healthcare and ongoing contact with infected people. Transmission of the airborne disease is also common because they tend to live in overcrowded areas and to continually move among hospitals, shelters and the streets.
Many homeless people also have substance abuse or mental health issues that can impede treatment.
“They go from place to place and the likelihood of passing it along is much greater,” said Paul Gregerson, chief medical officer of the JWCH Institute, which runs a homeless healthcare program on skid row. “It makes everybody more susceptible.”
Tuberculosis is easily passed along. It is contracted by inhaling droplets from infected patients when they sneeze, cough or laugh. When left untreated, the disease can be deadly.
The skid row strain can be treated by all anti-TB medications. Treatment lasts six to nine months. The health department issued an alert several weeks ago to doctors at emergency rooms, clinics and urgent care centers informing them about the investigation within the homeless community. Most of the patients are male and about 20% are also HIV positive, according to the alert, which was obtained by The Times.
Six of the eight patients who also had HIV have died. The increase of tuberculosis among the homeless population is occurring even as the county is seeing a decline in overall cases, officials said. There probably are additional cases among the homeless that have not yet been confirmed.Read the full story here.