TB Outbreak in Argentine Sweatshops

(Subscription required to read full articles. Click here for subscription information)

Article from NotiSur, March 14

Tuberculosis, a disease linked with poverty that had been under control in Argentina since the early part of the last century, has reappeared with a vengeance in the country’s capital. As before, the outbreak appeared in clandestine sweatshops that make high-fashion, expensive clothing. Paradoxically, the city that is a South American cultural Mecca with the highest rates of human development also has the country’s highest pollution levels. After reading files from the state Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) and the four main public hospitals where infectious diseases are treated, Prosecutor Federico Delgado criticized Buenos Aires, pointing out that its tuberculosis (TB) index increased 25% (from 26.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 1985 to 33 cases in 2011) in the Argentine capital, while the national TB index dropped by 39% for the same 26-year period. Andrés Gaudín Read More