Portugal city to ask gov't to help control Europe's largest tuberculosis outbreak

A Portugal city council plans to ask the central government for assistance to control the number of cases of tuberculosis in three of its parishes, local media reported on Friday.

The parishes of Luzim, Boelhe, Rio de Moinhos and Cabeca Santa in the city of Penafiel, 290 kilometers north of Portuguese capital Lisbon, have a large number of people working in the stone quarrying industry.

And the three parishes are the site of the biggest outbreak of tuberculosis in Europe, according to figures recently collated by the local health authorities.

"It is necessary and urgent to combat and control tuberculosis in the parishes at risk," a city council source told Portuguese news agency Lusa following a council meeting to vote on the request for central government intervention.

The Penafiel city council said it would specifically "ask for more screening and medical staff at the health centers of the parishes considered to be at high risk of tuberculosis."

The latest figures from the National Program to Combat Tuberculosis showed that 2,480 cases of the disease were recorded in Portugal in 2012. In that year the Penafiel region had 55.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants whilst the Portuguese average was 20 cases. Enditem