Hundreds queue up for TB testing
‘Bedlam’ as huge group attends screening following ‘outbreak’
HUNDREDS of people have attended TB screening sessions following an outbreak in Llanelli that has been linked to one person’s death.
Public Health Wales last week confirmed there had been 29 cases of TB in the Llwynhendy area since 2010 – and called for people who may have been exposed to the infection to be tested.
That prompted a huge response yesterday, as long queues formed at three separate locations across town.
HUNDREDS queued for TB screenings in Llanelli yesterday following an outbreak of the disease in the area.
Public Health Wales confirmed recently there had been 29 known cases of TB in the Llwynhendy area of Llanelli since 2010, with one death in 2018.
Last week around 80 residents and people who frequent the Joiners Arms – a pub linked to the outbreak – were invited to attend screenings as they had been identified as ‘contacts’ of the confirmed TB cases.
Public screenings began yesterday and will also be carried out today in vans outside Parc y Scarlets, Llwynhendy surgery, and the Joiners Arms.
Simon Alan from Llwynhendy was one of those queuing yesterday at the Joiners Arms. He said there were far more than 80 people queuing to be tested for the disease.
“It was bedlam down there. We were circling the pub for around an hour just trying to find somewhere to park,” he said.
“There were people queuing outside in the rain for hours then being turned away at the end. We queued for ages and then weren’t even able to get tested and told to go to our GP instead.
“We were speaking to people in the queue who had come down all the way from Ammanford but wanted to get screened for peace of mind, but there should have been more prioritising as we drink in the pub almost every week and weren’t even able to get tested in the end.
“We saw so many people give up after having enough of queuing and if they didn’t give up they were being turned away, it was chaos.”
Screening in the Joiners Arms was not the only site to be under immense pressure with reports of hundreds of people also queuing to be screened in both Parc y Scarlets and Llwynhendy surgery.
Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection spread through inhaling tiny droplets from the coughs or sneezes of an infected person. The condition is usually found in the lungs but it can affect other parts of the body.
The most common symptom of TB is a persistent cough for more than three weeks, with spit which can sometimes be blood-stained. Other symptoms can include: weight loss; a high temperature; sweating, particularly at night.
The groups of people eligible to be screened are: ■ People who have received a letter inviting them to attend for screening;
■ Adult customers and employees of the Joiners Arms public house in Llwynhendy between 2005 and 2018 only who have not previously been identified as a contact of someone infected with TB;
■ Adults who have been in the same room for more than eight hours as someone with TB, within four months before the person with TB was diagnosed and treated.
Dr Brendan Mason, consultant in communicable disease control for Public Health Wales, said previously: “TB has been circulating at a low level in Llwynhendy for some time and our aim is to ensure that all affected individuals proceed to treatment as soon as possible so that we can halt any further spread of the disease and bring the outbreak under control.
“After closely monitoring and investigating the Llwynhendy outbreak for a number of years, the evidence suggests that carrying out a community screening exercise at this time is the best course of action in order to bring this outbreak under control and, ideally, eradicate the disease from the Llwynhendy area.”