General Chat

well looking at all the replys has given me food for thought . I am more concerned now than when my daughter brought the letter home in the 1st place . I think i'll be having a word with our doctor and like Irish girl if i have to, i will offer to pay especially since reading in the newspaper this morning of the bus driver who has infected all those children

nudging cos this should be with Julie's thread

Have just read your post Connie, and had heard before that they were stopping the BCG injections for teenagers in school.... what annoys me is that I have an acquaintance, who happens to have a high standard of living, no expense spared sort of thing.....and she caught T.B......how.......well her Doctor told her that because of the high TB rate in ethnic countries, and how easy it is for families to travel back and forward to these countries, it is becoming rife in certain areas..... and they still choose to ban BCG for kids......my Dad nearly died of TB when I was 9.....as it was I did not see him for a year because he was in a sanitorium, and then 6 months convalescence at home before he went back to work.....I did not have BCG because apparently I had built up enough immunity ????.....thank God for streptomycin...

OC I had a chest Xray as a child (mass-screening before the advent of the BCG test) another before starting college, another before starting work and then a further one at the time of the scare. As far as I know, they were ALL clear - my GP told me I didn't have TB, merely the potential for it to develop! The treatment was supposed to be precautionary. Perhaps if there was evidence that you had already had it, it was a different scenario? All I can say is that out of a work force of about 30, one had TB, so 29 others were tested. 6 caused concern and 2 of those 6 needed treatment. None of the 6 had actually worked alongside the TB patient - we just happened to work under the same roof, so it was almost random testing. That was the frightening bit!! Jay

Janet That is exactly what I was told - that I had a natural immunity, caused by having had, at some point, a mild attack of TB. I had a huge reaction to the skin test - so bad that I was taken to hospital by the school nurse. I was later sent for an x-ray and that is when they picked up mild TB damage to my lungs. I never had the vaccination because of this. Hmmm! OC

Apparently T.B. is supposed to have been eradicated in the UK, thus the reason for not imunising, although with immigration as it is these days TB has returned to many countries in Europe. Here in Spain children can be vaccinated it is optional.

I think from what I,m seeing ..few peeps are getting it ......But T.B is now drug resistant ...so therefore inject or not ..we are in trouble with it . new drugs are being developed and seem to work!! so we just hope I guess A case of ..' our lives in their hands' ...!

I had T.B. of the lungs back in 1968/9 all my children had to have an injection as did my mum and dad and OH and his mum and dad and any of our friends at the time Hazelx

OC I understood the specialist to say that I had picked up the TB bugs because I had NOT had the vaccination. I did not have the vaccination because I was considered to have had natural immunity when I had the BCG test at school. At that time, we were told we had probably had some contact with TB bugs and our bodies had reacted to this, providing us with this immunity.(No TT milk available in the village when I was a child) When I was tested at school, I'm pretty sure there was no reaction, just the little 6 needle mark. The second test - instant burning sensation in my arm, followed by tremendous itch, redness and slight swelling. Couldn't believe it - I had natural immunity - they'd told me so when I was 10/11 !! Interestingly enough, there were 6 of us who had some slight reaction - all over 40, all deemed at our first BCG test at school to have natural immunity and NOT to need vaccinating. The other person who was recommended to have a course of antibiotics suffered from Addisons, and there was a problem finding a suitable drug for her. As far as I know, she did nothing about it. I was perfectly well, could not pass on any bugs to anyone, BUT was carrying the potential to develop full-blown TB in the future, either in old age or if I developed some other condition which weakened my system. I found it horrifying - all 6 of us had been told as children TB was one thing we would never get. Jay

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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 .