Several tuberculosis cases found among squatters of abandoned Badalona high school

The Catalan health department has registered around a dozen tuberculosis cases among the hundreds of squatters living at the abandoned high school, B9, in Badalona, north of Barcelona. 

The nine positives would have been infected within the center due to coexistence, as first reported by the Spanish newspaper El Periódico and later confirmed by the Catalan News Agency (ACN). Meanwhile, health experts rule out defining the situation as an outbreak, as it technically means that there are more cases than the ones currently recorded.

Experts say that several of the people who occupied the abandoned high school in the summer of 2023 had already tested positive for tuberculosis. The public health body has treated all of the occupants.

Meanwhile, the Badalona mayor, Xavier Garcia Albiol, criticized public health authorities for not reporting to the Badalona city council that there were several cases of tuberculosis among the occupants of the abandoned high school.

The mayor said that between 400 and 500 people occupied the site, and the process of evicting them started in 2023.

Albiol said that no one will leave the premises if there was risk of spreading the cases to Badalona or Sant Adrià de Besòs, a neighboring municipality, to the publicly owned abandoned high school.

"We are on the last steps to be granted a day and hour to enter and to empty the site, we are working side-by-side with the Catalan interior ministry and the Spanish government delegation in Catalonia, as we could probably be facing the largest eviction in Catalan history," Albiol told media outlets on Friday.

He added that it is an "irresponsibility" not to warn the city council, and that the Catalan health department must inform city councils and health authorities of positive tuberculosis cases.

Later in the day, Albiol said that after speaking with Olga Pané, the Catalan health minister, and being told that there was no risk of spreading the infection, the eviction will continue as planned.

At the moment, the city council is pending the official confirmation from judicial authorities that the eviction has been green lighted and a day to start the process.

Public health officials

At the same time, the deputy director of emergency responses and control of the Catalan public health system, Jacobo Mendioroz, said that the people who tested positive have already started treatment and are not contagious.

He said that the situation is "quite under control," but they cannot say it is "over" as symptoms can take months or years to appear.

Mendioroz also said that the department did not report the cases to the city council, as there was no risk for civilians. "If we had thought that there was a risk for nearby residents, we would have spoken to local authorities," he said before explaining that "tuberculosis is not like Covid-19, there must be a contact for several hours in an indoor space."