ruthbeme
Well-known member
A MOTHER wants to rally other parents to protest after discovering the tuberculosis vaccine is no longer routinely offered to secondary school pupils.
Paula Devlin, of Fairlands View, Balderstone, was appalled when her 12-year-old son Charlie came home from St Cuthbert?s RC High School with a letter from Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale PCT school health team explaining the anti-TB vaccine, known as the BCG, is no longer offered to all pupils.
From now on the vaccine will only be offered to those at high risk of contracting the disease. Risk factors include if a parent or grandparent was born in a country with a high level of TB or if anyone in the close family had been in contact with a person with TB.
Now Mrs Devlin, also mother to Amy, aged 17 and Matthew, aged two, wants parents of high school pupils, as well as younger children who will be faced with this situation in the future, to get behind her campaign to have the vaccine reinstated in schools.
She said: ?Over the past few years the government has made such a fuss about the MMR jab and in the next breath it tells us our kids don?t need the BCG, even though the number of tuberculosis cases reported in the country is rising all the time.
?I have been told my child can?t have this done at the doctors, so it seems the only option now is to go private.?
She has started a petition to have the vaccine reinstated in all secondary schools.
Bernadine O?Sullivan, public health consultant for Rochdale, said: ?Reported cases of TB, year on year, are very low in Rochdale like many other parts of the country and, therefore, children living in Rochdale are at an extremely low risk of infection.
?The new BCG vaccination programme is specifically designed to target those individuals who are at greatest risk of catching the disease.
?Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale PCT is currently making new arrangements to test and immunise children at risk of TB according to the new Department of Health recommendations and BCG vaccinations will no longer be offered through schools.
?Anyone who is concerned about the changes to the BCG vaccination programme can visit the immunisation website on www.immunisation.nhs.uk where a factsheet is available or one can be provided by the PCT upon request.?
http://www.rochdaleobserver.co.uk/news/s/227/227094_angry_mum_leads_fight_to_restore_tb_vaccine.html
Paula Devlin, of Fairlands View, Balderstone, was appalled when her 12-year-old son Charlie came home from St Cuthbert?s RC High School with a letter from Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale PCT school health team explaining the anti-TB vaccine, known as the BCG, is no longer offered to all pupils.
From now on the vaccine will only be offered to those at high risk of contracting the disease. Risk factors include if a parent or grandparent was born in a country with a high level of TB or if anyone in the close family had been in contact with a person with TB.
Now Mrs Devlin, also mother to Amy, aged 17 and Matthew, aged two, wants parents of high school pupils, as well as younger children who will be faced with this situation in the future, to get behind her campaign to have the vaccine reinstated in schools.
She said: ?Over the past few years the government has made such a fuss about the MMR jab and in the next breath it tells us our kids don?t need the BCG, even though the number of tuberculosis cases reported in the country is rising all the time.
?I have been told my child can?t have this done at the doctors, so it seems the only option now is to go private.?
She has started a petition to have the vaccine reinstated in all secondary schools.
Bernadine O?Sullivan, public health consultant for Rochdale, said: ?Reported cases of TB, year on year, are very low in Rochdale like many other parts of the country and, therefore, children living in Rochdale are at an extremely low risk of infection.
?The new BCG vaccination programme is specifically designed to target those individuals who are at greatest risk of catching the disease.
?Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale PCT is currently making new arrangements to test and immunise children at risk of TB according to the new Department of Health recommendations and BCG vaccinations will no longer be offered through schools.
?Anyone who is concerned about the changes to the BCG vaccination programme can visit the immunisation website on www.immunisation.nhs.uk where a factsheet is available or one can be provided by the PCT upon request.?
http://www.rochdaleobserver.co.uk/news/s/227/227094_angry_mum_leads_fight_to_restore_tb_vaccine.html