Open AccessA No-Name Tuberculosis Tracking System
Author(s) -
Dennis Y. Kim,
Renée Ridzon,
Beverly K. Giles,
Teresa Mireles,
Kelli Garrity,
Amber Hathcock,
David W. Crowder,
Robert T. Jackson,
Zachary Taylor
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.93.10.1637
Subject(s) - tuberculosis , public health , documentation , unit (ring theory) , medicine , environmental health , population , tracking (education) , pathology , psychology , pedagogy , mathematics education , mathematics , computer science , programming language
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.