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| Disease afflicts itinerant farm workers in Hungary |
| Budapest, 30.08.2014 |
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| Questions are being raised about the working conditions of itinerant farm workers in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok after the county suffered its second mass outbreak of a farm-related disease in weeks.
An outbreak of leptospirosis in the county has so far infected 41 people, according to Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok chief medical officer Róbert Sinkó-Káli. The county’s health and safety office has initiated an investigation.
The first reported cases of the disease, which is also known as cane-cutter’s fever and ratcatcher’s yellows, occurred at the end of June. Farm workers working barefoot on rain-soaked, swampy lands were infected through wounds on their legs. Only two of the infected have been hospitalised. So far six of the cases have been confirmed as leptospirosis, while the others await test results, Sinkó-Káli said.
The region has a huge number of rodents and their urine is the most common reason for a leptospirosis outbreak. The symptoms include periodic fever, shivering, sore muscles, headaches, dizziness and vomiting. “It began on Tuesday afternoon,” Mrs István Gazdag told local television channel Szolnok TV. “I had a very high fever on Wednesday, so finally I went to the doctor on Thursday because Wednesday was serious. I could not stand up, I was so sick.”
The outbreak is not the only major farming-related mass infection in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok this summer. In mid-July around 50 day labourers caught Lime Disease after prolonged contact with celery plants and sunshine. A dermatologist said the large, painful wounds carry a major threat of further infection, due to their size.
Since then 100 people have received medical treatment for Lime Disease in the county. The affected workers – most of them Gypsies – have turned to Roma advocacy organization “Missed 1,000 Years”. They say the (as yet unnamed) employer must have been aware of the risk of handling the celery plants without suitable clothing. The injury causes no lasting damage but can require weeks of treatment.
Referenced:
http://www.atv.hu/belfold/20140826-terjed-a-leptospirozis-szolnok-tersegeben
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