Friday, 15 August 2025, 18:50
The screening carried out in Malaga’s Hospital Regional among 45 health professionals, after contact with a patient infected with tuberculosis, has resulted in five positives. This is what the nursing union SATSE reported on Thursday, adding that the situation that could have been avoided with a better safety protocol.
“The hospital management assured us that they were going to take care of the health of the professionals, but the reality is quite different. The lack of staff has meant that there are more contacts,” SATSE officials told this newspaper.
Official sources at the Hospital Regional have confirmed the positive results of these five professionals, but they said that it is important to establish a complete context of what happened. They pointed out that the screening was carried out after contact with an infected patient on 12 August.
In a letter to the media, the management of the Hospital Regional insists that a positive result is not the same as being ill.
“In the framework of preventive control measures, five professionals have been detected with a positive result in the initial screening test. This result does not imply illness, as it may be due, among other causes, to previous contact with the bacteria that the immune system itself effectively controlled, to the administration of the BCG vaccine (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin, used to prevent severe forms of tuberculosis) or to cross-reactions with other non-tuberculosis mycobacteria,” the report reads.
Moreover, it pointed out that all the professionals “are undergoing clinical monitoring and the necessary complementary tests to confirm their state of health”. Moreover, it is considered that situations like this “are commonplace in the health sector”.
What is tuberculosis? According to the World Health Organization (WHO) it is an “infectious disease caused by the tubercle bacillus, a bacterium that usually affects the lungs. It is transmitted through the air when a sick person coughs, sneezes or spits”. If left untreated, it is life-threatening.