Minnesota Pork Plant Workers Fall Ill | Yankton Press & Dakotan
MINNEAPOLIS —

Eleven workers at an Austin, Minn., pork processing plant mysteriously fell ill between last December and July with a neurological disorder whose cause remains unknown, state health officials said Monday. The condition afflicting five of the workers at Quality Pork Processors has been identified as a rare disease called chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), which normally strikes fewer than two people per 100,000. In this instance, it may have struck 11 out of about 100 people in a particular part of the plant, state officials said. It is most often a chronic disease that results in nerve damage and can lead to disability.

Never before have so many cases of this type occurred in a particular locale, specific type of work, or in association with a particular animal, experts said. The disease is an inflammation of the nervous system that can cause muscle weakness, tingling sensations in the arms and legs and pain over several months, Magnan said. Two of the workers were hospitalized but have since been released, and all are recovering. But some workers may experience “residual numbness or weakness after treatment,” she said. A study of the affected pork plant workers, who are of different ages, genders and ethnic groups, showed that their work area was the only thing they all had in common, said state epidemiologist Dr. Ruth Lynfield. Existing diseases that can make people predisposed to the illness, such as lymphoma or diabetes, were ruled out as causes, she said.

Of course the health department is reporting that there is no evidence that this is being spread to the general public, as they should. But a heads up would be nice.