School administrators, business representatives and others in Shawano County say they are satisfied with how public health officials have responded to the county’s first cases of tuberculosis in nearly 10 years.
Records released by the Shawano-Menominee Counties Health Department show that many people in the Tigerton area raised questions and concerns before the health department publicly acknowledged Aug. 19 that tuberculosis had been detected in the rural community.
It was Shawano County’s second confirmed case of tuberculosis within a few months, and it had people around town talking long before health officials confirmed the presence of the deadly communicable disease.
Sue Hintz, office manager at Tigerton Lumber, said rumors were circulating about tuberculosis. So lumber mill officials contacted the health department Aug. 13 to ask under what circumstances employees should be sent home to avoid the risk of spreading the disease.
“We’re such a small town, and everybody knows everybody,” Hintz said. “We thought we needed to get answers.”
Tuberculosis, also known as TB, is a bacterial disease that commonly attacks the lungs and can be spread by an infected person coughing or sneezing around others. There are about 50 cases reported annually in Wisconsin, although Shawano County had not experienced any tuberculosis since 2006.
Records obtained by The Shawano Leader under the state’s open records law show that county health officials considered alerting area news media to the tuberculosis case in early August, but they opted instead to keep the situation quiet out of concern for the patient’s confidentiality.
A previous case detected elsewhere in the county in early April also had not been disclosed to the news media at that point.
Other new information disclosed in records released by the health department:
- The earlier case involved a military veteran who tested positive for tuberculosis at the Tomah VA Medical Center and who had relatives in Illinois.
- The state health department committed $3,000 to help Shawano County with costs associated with managing its tuberculosis cases.
- Law enforcement officials considered using an electronic ankle bracelet to monitor the movements of the TB patient in Tigerton.
The Shawano Leader requested access to health department records in the TB cases not to attempt to identify either patient, but to examine how government officials detected and managed the public health issues raised in both of these unusual cases.
Members of the community whose interaction with the county health department was documented in the records say they were pleased with the health department’s response and felt the TB episode was managed effectively.
“I think they handled it very well,” said Tigerton School Principal David Battenberg.
School administrators reached out to county health officials before any official public TB announcement had been made. With a new school year approaching, Battenberg said, administrators wanted assurances that there was no public health emergency.
Health officials were forthcoming with information, the principal said, and were able to field all manners of questions about the situation.
“They were very pro-active,” he said.
The situation began in early April when representatives of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs notified county health officials that a veteran had tested positive for tuberculosis at the Tomah VA Medical Center. The county responded with a request for information from the Tomah facility, as officials began mapping out their strategy to treat the patient and check whether he could have spread the disease to others.
In an email April 3 to county public health nurse Kristine Labby, county health director Jaime Bodden wrote, “I know that there will be lots for you to do early next week on this.”
Officials made no public announcement of the TB case and have since declined to say where in Shawano County the veteran lives.
State health officials separately have indicated that both of Shawano County’s TB patients were men in their 50s.
The second case emerged in early August involving a man from Tigerton who officials said had no relation or connection to the first patient. Like the first patient, the second agreed to remain in isolation to avoid spreading the disease while officials checked family members and others for symptoms of tuberculosis.
As rumors swirled in Tigerton that a local resident had contracted TB, county health officials wrestled with whether to notify the news media and alert the general public.
In an email to county officials on Aug. 10 — about one week after the Tigerton case was confirmed — state public health regional director Chris Culotta offered a draft press release for consideration and wrote, “I understand there are pros and cons to sending out a media release.”
Inquiries and concerns continued to mount from residents of Tigerton and the surrounding area, so the county health department started keeping a written log of individuals and organizations who had sought information or guidance.
Josh Gartzke, plant manager for Top Brass Inc., a manufacturer in Wittenberg, called to ask health officials if he had any reason for concern about employees who lived in the Tigerton area. Gartzke said health officials could not provide details, but they disclosed enough information to put his mind at ease.
He said the health department handled the situation responsibly.
“They did what they’re supposed to,” he said.
Word leaked out to the news media on Aug. 17, and Tigerton village leaders persuaded the county health department to conduct a public information meeting, which was held Aug. 19. At that meeting, Bodden acknowledged under questions from reporters that the Tigerton case had been preceded by an earlier case of TB elsewhere in the county.
In an email later to a communications specialist with the state heath department, Bodden wrote that she felt “blindsided” to be questioned about not one, but two, TB cases.
“As the local contact for the case and the brunt of the media attention,” she wrote, “we want to put our best face forward and look competent, in control, and authoritative.”
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