The Ventura County Public Health Department believes close to 200 people at the Amazon fulfillment center in Oxnard may have been exposed to tuberculosis.
The 2.3 million square foot facility processes an estimated two million packages a week and is believed to have about 2,000 employees working there.
Of those employees, approximately 180 people were exposed to the person with active tuberculosis, but the Ventura County Public Health Department says there is no danger to the public.
Staff from the Ventura County Public Health Department tuberculosis program found out about the employee with active tuberculosis on Monday.
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They started working with Amazon leadership to notify staff about the possible exposure on Monday and Tuesday.
The Ventura County Public Health Department officer Dr. Robert Levin says the 180 employees are in the process of being tested, but he does not believe there will be a high number of isolations or quarantines.
“Our usual approach is to go in for a day or two and educate all of the employees and tell them what the concerns should be and answer their questions and usually we can reassure people. Usually very few people are infected by the index case, what we call the original person who was infected,” Levin said.
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“The transmission of it, even though it’s airborne, it’s really pretty challenging to get infected with tuberculosis, unless you are really in someone’s face, breathing directly into the droplets. breathing the droplets in,” Nurse Alice Benjamin said.
Benjamin explained that there’s a difference between active tuberculosis disease and a tuberculosis infection.
A person with active tuberculosis disease can pass along that infection to others through sharing the same air for an extended period of time and an cause illness in the lungs.
A person with a tuberculosis infection simply has the inactive tuberculosis germ in their body.
About 1 in 10 with a tuberculosis infection will become sick with tuberculosis disease in their lifetime.
If you have been exposed to tuberculosis, it is best to get tested and remember it is easily treated with oral medication.
The Ventura County public health department also stated that if you are expecting an Amazon package, there is no risk when you are handling those packages because the disease is spread through the air and not physical touch.
