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PROGRESSIVE INFLAMMATORY NEUROPATHY, PORK PLANT WORKERS - USA (06)
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A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>

Date: Wed 16 Apr 2008
Source: Associated Press [edited]
<http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hqaebpM28dOdHO2Fop0x-o06mxqQD9037NQG2>


The number of mysterious neurological illnesses among workers who
processed pig brains at pork plants in 3 states has grown to as many
as 24, and other possible cases are being evaluated, researchers said
Wednesday [16 Apr 2008].

Dr Daniel Lachance, a Mayo Clinic neurologist, said there are now 18
confirmed cases among people who have worked at the Quality Pork
Processors plant in Austin, Minnesota. That's up from 13 cases
reported as of February 2008. Lachance also said there are now about
5 cases among workers at a pork plant in Indiana, compared with 2
confirmed earlier, and one recently identified case at a plant in
Nebraska. Officials have not publicly named the Indiana and Nebraska
plants.

Lachance spoke in a teleconference from Chicago, where he and other
researchers presented details about the ongoing investigation at a
neurology conference hosted by the St Paul-based American Academy of
Neurology.

The common thread among the affected workers is that they all worked
in a part of the plants that used compressed air to blow pig brains
out of skulls, Lachance said. All the plants have discontinued the
practice. The working hypothesis, he told reporters, is still that
some of the brain tissue was turned into a fine mist during the
process, and that the workers became exposed to it and somehow
developed an autoimmune response that caused nerve damage.

"The precise mechanism by which that is occurring, we do not yet
understand," Lachance said.

Common symptoms include pain, weakness, fatigue, and numbness. A
unique pattern of antibodies has been found in all the patients,
Lachance said.

A Spanish-language interpreter at an Austin clinic and plant nurses
realized in 2007 they were seeing a pattern of similar illnesses
among the workers. The Mayo Clinic reported 12 cases to the state
Health Department in November 2007. In January 2008, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gave the condition a name,
progressive inflammatory neuropathy, or PIN.

The 18 patients identified by the Mayo Clinic developed their
symptoms from the end of November 2006 through the 1st week of April
2008. But the illness might have appeared earlier. Lachance said that
he evaluated a 22-year-old woman in Austin in 2004 with some similar
symptoms, but that she refused to have a spinal tap, has since
returned home to Mexico and is not being studied. He said another
patient he first saw in November 2005 is still being evaluated.

Researchers don't think the general public is at risk. "It doesn't
appear that the slaughtered pigs have been ill," said Dr James
Sejvar, a neurologist and epidemiologist at the CDC. "It doesn't
appear that this is in any way a foodborne illness. And it doesn't
appear as if this particular illness can be transmitted person to
person."

Lachance said none of the patients have recovered completely, though
all have improved or stabilized to a degree. He also said some have
had relapses. Some of the patients have required only pain
medication, while the most seriously ill have undergone drug
treatments to suppress their immune systems.

The 3 plants are the only ones investigators have found in the USA
that used compressed air to harvest pig brains, which are considered
a delicacy in some Asian countries.

Sejvar said the CDC has been working with the WHO (World Health
Organization) to see whether the procedure has been used in any
plants abroad. So far, they haven't heard of any. Even if the illness
turns out to be an isolated problem, Lachance said he hopes
researchers will be able to apply what they've learned to other
autoimmune illnesses. Scientists still don't know what triggers many
of them, he said.

[Byline: Steve Karnowski]

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<[email protected]>

[The numbers continue to grow slowly. No specific information
regarding the immune reactions found in this cohort is given. It
continues to be the case that an immunologic illness precipitated to
exposure of porcine brain antigens is the likely cause of this
illness. - Mod.LL]


snip...end

http://www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f?p=2400:1001:3215684746885055::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,72238


> Officials have not publicly named the Indiana and Nebraska
> plants.



----- Original Message -----

From: [email protected]
To: Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 4:53 PM
Subject: Re: question please.....Neurological illness strikes Nebraska pork
plant worker



We have confirmed to media who called here that we have one case of
progressive inflammatory neuropathy in a former worker in a Nebraska pork
processing plant. We haven't sent out a news release. There is nothing on
our Web site about it.

If you have other questions, write back.

Marla Augustine
Communications and Legislative Services
Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services
301 Centennial Mall South
P.O. Box 95026
Lincoln, NE 68509-5026
[email protected]
Work: (402) 471-4047
Cell: (402) 416-9388
Fax: (402) 471-3996



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