Illegal, Unpasteurized Dairy Products, Spring Up Rare TB In California

A rare tuberculosis strain, thought to be eradicated long back from the U.S, is found to be springing up its head again, all thanks to the illegally made and marketed, unpasteurized dairy products, the popular queso fresco cheese, being one of them.

Said to be popularly seen in children consuming milk from infected cows/cattle, the Mycobacterium bovis strain of TB, is seeing a rise in the number of cases being reported off late, especially in the Hispanic immigrants in Southern California and the San Diego County.

The culprit behind the spread of this disease is the Hispanic cheese, made illegally in the backyards of houses and also commonly called as the ‘bath tub’ cheese as, surprisingly, that is the most common place where it is made.

Also, despite being declared as illegal the cheese is easily available from road side vendors and is being smuggled along the Mexican borders, the demand for it having increased many folds, in the recent past.

Where on one hand 108 million pounds of this cheese was produced legally last year, 375 pounds of it was seized from the illegal vendors, however, how much of it is being produced illegally is unknown.

Scientists researching the rare strain of TB for 11 years, from 1994 to 2005, have found that although the disease does not infect many and is not as contagious like the common TB, Bovine tuberculosis is on a rise slowly, but steadily, from a 17 cases per year earlier to 28 cases per year in 2005; a 65% rise.

Not only this, the possibility that a person will die from this rare disease before the treatment is even complete, is twice as high as that compared to normal TB.

The reasearchers found that among those found to be infected by M.bovis TB, almost all were Hispanics, half were children below 15 years of age and 60% were people from mexico, where 17% of the herds are infected by this strain.

“I wouldn’t want to characterize it as increasing in epidemic proportions,” said Dr. Kathleen Moser, director of tuberculosis control programs for San Diego County. “But it’s clearly being seen, and being seen in places where people drink unpasteurized milk and eat unpasteurized dairy products.”

Scientists believe that awareness and stricter measures are the only solutions to this problem and its spread, as it is important to educate people against buying illegal, unpasteurized cheese, laced with E.coli, salmonella and listeria and M.Bovis TB.