Health detects ten cases of tuberculosis in a squat in Badalona.
The department ensures that it follows all those affected to ensure they receive antibiotics.
BarcelonaThe Catalan government's Department of Health has detected at least nine positive cases of tuberculosis in the last two years, concentrated among the hundreds of 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 and have tested positive for this disease.
The mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol, is scheduled to make an appearance this Friday morning to provide more details on the cases. The council has been demanding the eviction of B9 through the courts for two years, claiming that it is a hotbed of problems, drug trafficking and prostitution. Albiol publicly demanded it again in late August, when there was a deadly fight on the premisesSince 2023, the City Council has carried out thirteen administrative and judicial procedures to vacate the space. Although the courts have authorized the eviction, it has never materialized.
From the opposition, the Socialist Workers' Party (PSC) of Badalona reproaches Albiol that in 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 when he created an anti-employment council that has resolved absolutely nothing. The housing needs of people and security for residents." 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."
