General Chat

My daughter came home from school this week with a letter from the school nurse regarding the T.B injection. It asked for the country of birth of both parents and grandparents. Apparently , if you answer 'UK' for both parents and grandparents , you are not at risk and will not be offered the injection. On the other side of the letter it gave a list of probably every other country in the world ( i might be slightly exagerating but there were loads of countries listed) . If parents and /or grandparents are from another country , then the child will be offered the injection. I have slightly mixed feelings about this as both me and my husband and our 3 other children all had the 'big' injection and it was something that we all knew we would have to have once we had started secondary school. Is this going on in other parts of the country ? What do others think of this ?

Not heard of it down here Dont understand it though as a friend of ours nearly died 4 years ago with TB was only saved by a new drug that was on trials Jan

All my children had to have the jab ...but I understand what you mean my father was born in Indian when My grandad was in the army he was white ..but he was still born in Indian I was told that people from Asian Countries are natural carriers...

its the same here not being given shame as we in high ethnic mix area so there alwasy as poss of infection s

I never understood these injections...whats the BCG one in approx Year 9? This from a parent of 5 children! I never had to have the Year 9 one...(Fourth year in my day) I really can't remember why I didn't have it. Tina x

I thought the injection had been stopped altogether so maybe it's something that at least some are being offered it - looks like the powers that be reckon it is only immigrants who are at risk! I agree that it loves an overcrowded environment - but if there should be an epidemic I would reckon everyone would be at risk! I find it a bit worrying that this disease is creeping back actually. My aunt died in 1948 (before I was born) from TB and my mum has a scar on her throat which doctors only identified as a TB scar about 3 years ago - even though she has had it since then! We all had the jab though and I'm fairly sure my children did as well.

In my area, the TB jab is given at birth. When my daughter was born 4 years ago the hospital ran out of supplies. I had to wait til she was a month old. My older children, 18 & 14 had their jab in year 6 (age 11). Because TB is so rife in my area all babies are given the jab.

The NHS is no longer funding routine TB (BCG) vaccinations, only for those from a high-risk group. Most of the recent cases of TB in this country are of ethnic origin, such as people from the sub-continent of India, and Western Africa. If you don't fall into that group AND you havent been to either country, then it is seen as a waste of public money to vaccinate, as the likelihood of you getting it is remote. TB has been virtually eradicated from the indigenous population. OC

both my kids had it at school my 3rd son who is 15 had that letter i was very worried as my mother died of TB and i even offered to pay but they said no. I felt so angry as i went to Gp and got told no but they are giving all the forieners the inj within 6 months of coming into this country.

Reading some of the messages on here , more so from Irish girl , it is quite worrying especially having such a close family member dying as a result of this disease . If ethnic minorities are more of a risk, then this must be a threat to Britain as a whole especially since we dont do automatic screening when they come into the country . My uncle had an operation and according to my mum , this 'woke up' T.B in his throat , luckily he was treated successfully , but he and his parents and grandparents were all white British so i cannot fully appreciate that our children are no longer considered at risk .

i feel like i have let my son down, but i even rang the hospital, they also said no as my mum was from ireland and that was not one of the countries listed. How can people coming into Britain get them and my son or our children can't, so unfair. Had it been the year before my son would have got it, he missed by only 1 year.

It is disgraceful. TB was all but eradicated from this country until we started letting people in from high risk counties without medical certification. They must see us coming.

I'm in Northern Ireland. My daughter had hers aged 13 , just 2 years ago. My son aged 10 has been told he won't be having his jab for BCG. As for it being eradicated only 4 weeks ago an outbreak of TB was broadcasted in a school in LUTON ( a town I lived in for 12 yrs and both children born in ) hot on the heels of this news was another outbreak up north somewhere. I'd like my son to be vaccinated and I will be asking our doctor how I can go about this. Much happiness Debi

I read somewhere that BCG is not without risk. In this area a regular school bus driver has just been diagnosed. All the kids and staff who have been transported in his bus have been tested and those showing a positive reaction are being treated but the others are not. You bet the authorities are being cautious and not reacting to cash restraints Clive

Clive All vaccination carries a risk. The World Health Organisation has said that there no longer needs to be a mass vaccination programme for TB, in the developed world. TB is a disease of poverty, over crowded living conditions and low standards of hygiene. This doesnt apply to most people in the UK any more and certainly to no-one on these boards, lol. Most healthy British born people will deal quietly with any TB germ they come across - their bodies will fight and destroy it. The long term effects of mass vaccination for any disease are not really known, but some experts are quietly muttering that the huge rise in Asthma in this country, is linked to vaccination. I can understand the concern of any parent, but I don't think you need to worry, really. Any area which has a high risk of TB will still be operating a vaccination programme. With modern drugs, TB is no longer the deadly killer it once was, and TB in a normally healthy person will just be a bit of a nuisance, treated at home. OC

found this ............. The provisional data for 2006 shows that: 8,171 cases of TB were provisionally reported in England Wales and Northern Ireland in 2006. These data represent a rate of 14.8 cases per 100,000* population in 2006 compared with a rate of 14.5 per 100,000* in 2005. All these figures are provisional. The highest rate of disease was observed in London (45.8/100,000)*, which accounted for 42% of the total number of reported cases, followed by the West Midlands (18.3/100,000)*, Yorkshire and Humberside (12.9/100,000)* and North West (11.2/100,000)*. Northern Ireland and East of England saw decreases with 76 cases in 2005 to 61 in 2006 and 474 cases in 2005 to 446 cases in 2006 respectively. There has been a steady increase in the number of new diagnoses of TB in recent years as can be seen from these finalised figures, available up to 2005: 2000 – 6,323 2001 – 6,652 2002 – 6,861 2003 – 6,970 2004 – 7,321 2005 – 8,113 To view reports and information please go to the HPA website at

You are always at risk if you do NOT have the jab. My BCG test at school showed I had a natural immunity and didn't need the jab. 40 years on, a colleague developed TB - all staff were tested, again BCG - several of us had to have Xrays and further tests. Myself and one other were deemed to have TB bugs in our system, which if left untreated, could result in full-blown TB in later years. I had to have a 3 month course of very strong anti-biotics, which HAD to taken every day - if I forgot and missed a day, it was a case of reporting to the consultant and them trying to find an alternative drug. It IS rife again in Britain - I didn't even work with the colleague who had TB and they had no idea where I had got the bugs from. Possibly on an aeroplane, when a sufferer coughed and spread germs into the air - the air is then recycled. I had visited India and done internal flights there - had also done longhaul to Asia and Indonesia. BUT, it could have been any plane, going to the Continent, or an internal UK flight. It just takes one undiagnosed sufferer and anyone without the jab is vulnerable. I was born in the UK as were all my ancestors - back to 1700! Jay

I remember being a pin cushion a few years ago in secondary school and, although i'm blooming terrified of needles, i understood the need to get those injections. Is the situation the same in Scotland? I know that we have slightly different health system (though they are all the NHS) and often do things sligtly differently. Surely to keep the disease from becoming widespread again they need to keep up with the injections? Mhairi

Jay That is very interesting...I was diagnosed age 10, as having HAD TB at some point. It had gone unnoticed at the time. I never had any treatment - are you saying that I am vulnerable to TB? I had assumed that I am now immune to it. I did know that TB is steadily rising in this country, but everything I have read points to it being a problem brought into the country, rather than being generally on the increase in the long term resident population. OC

My sister who is 51 didn`t have it at school because she missed out as we moved house. She is going to South Africa in the summer to do voluntary work and now has to have it but has to go to Dundee for it as no supplies where she lives --she live s in Dunfermline, Ros