This goes against all previous government propaganda in favour of vaccinations

[Guest guest]

UK school children will no longer be routinely immunised against

tuberculosis, the government has announced.

Currently, all children aged between 10 and 14 are offered the BCG

vaccination.

 

But experts now believe the jab is pointless for most children, who

are at very low risk of the disease anyway.

 

Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said the BCG jab would be

reserved for youngsters from high risk groups whose parents were born

abroad.

 

Scrapped

 

The new programme will be introduced from September this year.

 

The World Health Organization estimates one person is infected with

TB every second. It kills two million people annually, mainly in

poorer nations.

 

Although cases of TB have grown in recent years in the UK, these have

mainly been concentrated in immigrant groups and the homeless.

 

It is appropriate to concentrate resources where they are most

needed

 

Dr John Moore-Gillon, chair of the British Thoracic Society joint TB

committee and president of the British Lung Foundation

 

In England, there were more than 6,000 people diagnosed with the

disease in 2002 - up 25% over the last decade.

 

There are also around 350 deaths from TB each year in England.

 

But TB rates in the white population have been falling, and evidence

suggests that schoolchildren are at lowest risk.

 

Financial saving

 

Experts believe if you are not in one of the high risk groups, your

chances of getting TB are one in 100,000.

 

The BCG vaccine is thought to offer protection for around 15 years.

 

However, it is not effective for everyone. In the UK, only around two

thirds of those who receive the vaccination are believed to be

protected. Some trials have suggested protection could be as low as

30%.

 

Therefore, for every 5,000 children vaccinated, one case of TB would

be prevented over the following 15 years.

 

HIGH RISK GROUPS WHO WILL BE OFFERED BCG

All babies living in areas where the incidence of TB is 40/100,000 or

greater

Babies whose parents or grandparents have lived in a country with a

TB prevalence of 40/100,000 or higher

Unvaccinated new immigrants from countries with a high TB prevalence

 

Experts say that is hugely cost-ineffective.

 

The British Thoracic Society said it supported the decision to stop

the school BCG programme.

 

Dr John Moore-Gillon, chair of the British Thoracic Society joint TB

committee and president of the British Lung Foundation, said: " We

understand the rationale behind the government's decision to stop the

universal BCG vaccination programme.

 

" It is appropriate to concentrate resources where they are most

needed - shifting the focus to areas where TB is particularly

prevalent such as in London and other major inner cities, and to

population groups at particularly high risk of TB. "

 

But Dr Moore-Gillon said a selective vaccination programme would need

to be properly resourced so that those in high risk groups and areas

continued to be protected from the disease.

 

" It is vital that every single penny of the funds freed up from

abolition of universal BCG vaccination is diverted directly into

other aspects of TB control, such as our network of TB nurses.

 

" We would be very concerned if it just became lost in the general

public health budget, " he said.

 

Sir Liam Donaldson said: " The changes that we are implementing mean

that we will target those children who are most likely to catch the

disease earlier than they would have been identified through the

schools programme. "

 

The Department of Health said the changes were not about cutting

costs, but were better attuned to the current patterns of TB.

 

It also said that parents could still ask for their child to be

vaccinated even if they did not fit the criteria for receiving the

jab.

 

Conservative health spokesman Andrew Murrison warned that a postcode

approach to vaccination was fraught with difficulty, given movement

of people and the difficulty of identifying at-risk groups within

otherwise low-risk populations.