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South Africa's TB-Infected Saliva Trade is Booming

Posted by samzenpus on from the second-hand-needles dept.

How do you know when your country is in dire straits? Having a booming trade in TB-infected saliva might be a good indicator. TB sufferers in Cape Town, South Africa are selling samples of their sputum to healthy people to pass off as their own in a scam to gain medical grants. John Heinrich, chief executive of the SA National Tuberculosis Association, said, "It is definitely happening. People are trying to get a grant by pretending to be TB positive. Instead of handing their own sputum in, they buy it from people who have TB-positive sputum."

18 comments

  1. Overreaction much? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    South Africa is all kinds of screwed in a variety of ways; but I find it hard to believe that a bit of petty insurance fraud is really such a dire indicator. The fact that TB infected materials are so easy to come by, on the other hand...

    1. Re:Overreaction much? by LordAndrewSama · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Having grown up in south africa and recently left, I have to say this doesn't surprise me at all. what honestly surprises me(and will also surprise my sister when I go tell her about the latest za scam) is that there's medical grants? o_O seriously? medical grants? Holy crap, THAT should be news.

    2. Re:Overreaction much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They get a temporary grant of 1010 rands = 130 US$ per month, and maybe treatment for other diseases that they actually suffer from and that they wouldn't get treatment for because they're not highly infectious. The people who profit from this scheme are probably the ones who need it most. It's sad that it was exposed.

  2. Re:niggers by LordAndrewSama · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    yes, and the vast majority of them are better people than you, cowardly shithead.

  3. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  4. Re:What? by spun · · Score: 2, Funny

    Read at -1 if you are confused by a response that seems to be a nonsequiter.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  5. Re:What? by clone53421 · · Score: 2, Informative

    clint999 is a spambot.

    All of the comments are either the confused comment or direct quotations lifted from other people's posts. All of the comments are also posted at exactly 30 minutes past the hour, which reveals that it's not even a human spammer.

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  6. Re:What? by spun · · Score: 2, Funny

    Thanks for the info. Sheesh. Probably doesn't even have an emotion chip, so it can't even feel gratitude for my help.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  7. I thought... by JackPepper · · Score: 1

    the headline read "South Africa's TB-Infected Saliva Trade is Booming"

    Note to self: The next time I have health insurance, get checked for TB.

  8. Re:What? by girlintraining · · Score: 1

    Thanks for the info. Sheesh. Probably doesn't even have an emotion chip, so it can't even feel gratitude for my help.

    I think that's rather prejudiced. We know CowboyNeal is just a 7 line perl script, but we accept him just the way he is...

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
  9. Re:What? by spun · · Score: 1

    To be fair, some of those lines are very long.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton