'Ineffective' tuberculosis vaccinations in schools to be dropped
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Source: The Independent
Date: 06/07/2005
Jeremy Laurance, writing in the Independent, reports that the government's chief medical officer, Professor
Liam Donaldson, will today anounce the abandoning of the schools vaccination programme against tuberculosis,
despite a growth in reported cases of the disease. The BCG vaccine offered to 10-14 year olds is deemed
ineffective, however will continue to be offered to babies from high-risk immigrant groups whose parents
were not born in the UK. Experts, such as Professor Peter Ormerod, of the British Thoracic Society,
welcome the move and ask that the 10m cost of the scheme be used to improve control, saying that:
"Children born abroad or with parents born abroad are at a higher risk and they are offered vaccination
at birth, which will continue. If you are not one of those groups the chances of getting TB are one in
100,000".
