Health officials in Mower County, Minn., have been testing immediate family and co-workers of an individual who was recently diagnosed with active TB disease. The patient worked at the Hormel Foods plant in Austin, Minn. So far, all contacts have tested negative. The county and Hormel emphasize that the employee’s illness presented no risk to the food at the plant, as the disease is transmitted by person-to-person contact. The Minnesota Department of Health reported 96 cases of TB from January through August 2012. All but 17 patients were from the Twin Cities metropolitan area and most of them were foreign born.

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