TB scare centres on mill staff

By TONY GEE

A Northland man is in hospital with tuberculosis and 28 of his workmates have tested positive for the disease.

All the men work at Northland Mill, Juken Nissho's new extended lumber mill just north of Kaitaia.

A loader-driver at the plant contracted TB last month and has been in isolation at an unidentified hospital.

Of the 103 people who had been in contact with him, at least 28 tested positive.

In October 1999, Northland suffered its worst outbreak in 30 years when 12 Whangarei people contracted the disease.

In Auckland in 1998 six people were infected.

One health chief said it was significant that so many people had returned positive results in the latest alert. The results do not mean they have TB, but they could be in danger of contracting the disease.

They are expected to undergo chest x-rays at a special one-day clinic in Kaitaia next week.

If any irregularities show up, patients will be referred to a doctor for infection assessment and a sputum test that determines whether someone has contracted the disease.

Northland has between 10 and 15 confirmed cases each year.

The acting medical officer of health in Northland, Dr Hazel Lewis, would not give details about the people affected by the alert, or name the hospital involved.

The National Distribution Union, which represents most workers at the mill site, knew nothing about the outbreak until told by the Weekend Herald yesterday.

The union's Northland organiser, Trevor Knowles, said the union would discuss welfare issues with its delegates at the mill as soon as possible.

More than 200 people work at the new mill and a neighbouring mill.

Dr Lewis said a doctor was being sent to Kaitaia from Whangarei Hospital on Wednesday to conduct x-ray examinations of people testing positive after their skin tests.

"This is a very treatable and curable disease," she said.

Dr Lewis said she could understand any "uneasiness" among people working at the mill. Because of that anxiety she said, another initial screening test would be organised in Kaitaia, probably on Tuesday.

Members of Northland's public health unit were in Kaitaia now, tracing contacts between the confirmed case, mill workers and their families and people in the wider community.

The general manager of community and public health for the Northland District Health Board, Chris Farrelly, said the possible outbreak was significant in terms of the number of positive reactions to initial skin testing. The board was satisfied with the action being taken by the public health unit.

No comment was available from the mill management.

Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium and is a notifiable disease.

It is spread by inhaling infected droplets exhaled by someone with TB.

Nine people died in New Zealand after contracting TB in 2000.

Ten died in 1999, eight in 1998 and 15 in 1997.

Worldwide, 8 million new cases of TB are reported each year, resulting in 1.9 million deaths annually.