Health detects ten cases of tuberculosis in a squat in Badalona.

BarcelonaThe Catalan government's Department of Health has detected at least nine positive cases of tuberculosis in the last two years, concentrated among the more than 400 squatters living in the former B9 high school in Badalona. This was announced this morning. The Newspaper, which indicates that those affected would have been infected within the center, as a result of living together.

Salut details that it does not consider it to be an outbreak, since this technical concept encompasses a greater number of infections that have occurred in the same space and time. The department also adds that they are monitoring all cases to ensure they receive antibiotic treatment, and points out that there are several citizens who arrived at B9 in the summer of 2023 being positive for this disease.

The council has been demanding the eviction of B9 through the courts for two years, which would be the largest action of its kind ever carried out in Catalonia, according to the mayor of Badalona, ​​​​Xavier Garcia Albiol. Until now, Albiol has argued that the former institute is a hotbed of problems, drug trafficking and prostitution and in August he again publicly demanded the dismantling of this center, just after a deadly fight inside the facilitiesSince 2023, the City Council has completed thirteen administrative and judicial procedures to vacate the space. Although the courts have authorized the eviction, it has never materialized.

Albiol attacks the Generalitat

This Friday, Albiol expressed surprise that this information was being made public when the eviction process was nearing its end, and called the Department of Health "irresponsible" for not notifying the city council of these cases earlier. "I find it very surprising that the Department of Health confirms that there is tuberculosis in a municipal building that has been occupied for two years, which appears to have started in 2023 by some occupants, and that the City Council has not heard anything," Albiol said. "The City Council and the Badalona Municipal Hospital have not been informed, and that there have been a couple of meetings to discuss contagious diseases, the last one this August," he lamented.

The mayor also stated that if the cases are confirmed, the unemployment process could be affected, but that no one will be allowed to leave the building to prevent further contagion among the surrounding population. "If there isn't one, it will be carried out as planned and as we are working," he said.

For his part, the Deputy Director of Surveillance and Emergency Response at Public Health of Catalonia, Jacobo Mendioroz, explained that there is no cause for alarm. "If we had thought there really was a risk to the population, we would have done so [communicated the situation]," he stressed. Thus, he insisted that residents of the area should not take any preventive measures. "Tuberculosis is not like COVID; contact of a few hours in an enclosed space is necessary for there to be a risk of transmission," he explained.

In a media address, Mendioroz noted that the situation is "fairly under control," but not "closed," as symptoms can manifest in "months or years." The Public Health official avoided assessing a possible eviction of the space and stressed that "there is no health alert" for these cases because, he insists, they did not consider that there is "a risk to the population."

From the opposition, the Badalona Socialist Workers' Party (PSC) accuses Albiol of the fact that during all this time "the City Council has not promoted any social plan to address this situation." According to the Socialists, the eviction is necessary, but alternative housing is also needed. They say this in reference to the closure of the municipal shelter by the PP government. In a statement, the president of the PSC municipal group, Fernando Carrera, added: "In June 2023, when Albiol came to office, B9 was occupied, just as he created an anti-employment council that has resolved absolutely nothing. We have always defended that unemployment should be implemented, but with a social and health plan." Carrera insisted that "Badalona needs a responsible government that puts health, safety, and coexistence first, not Albiol's propaganda interests," and asserted that the current situation at B9 "is a demonstration of the municipal government's neglect."