South Africa's TB-Infected Saliva Trade is Booming

Posted by samzenpus on Friday September 18, 2009 @05:42AM 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."

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Re:Overreaction much? by LordAndrewSama · 2009-09-22 06:50 · 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.