Supply shortage means 10,000 babies await TB vaccination

AROUND 10,000 babies in Cork are on a waiting list to be vaccinated against the potentially life-threatening disease Tuberculosis, it emerged yesterday.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) said the delay in vaccinations for newbornshad been caused by a shortage of supply of the BCG vaccine last year following manufacturing problems.

Scores of vaccination clinics had to be cancelled in the county last November and December.

Cork Fine Gael TD Deirdre Clune said parents of newborns in Cork had been forced to have their babies immunised in other counties.

“I have met parents who have brought their babies to counties like Waterford and Kerry to receive the vaccine,” she said. “The fact that babies in Cork are denied a vital vaccine solely on the basis of the county in which they were born is totally unacceptable.”

Forced cancellations occurred last autumn as the HSE was rolling out an expanded service so all newborn babies would be offered the vaccine.

A HSE spokesman said that while the shortage affected the entire country, waiting lists had been confined to Cork.

The HSE South said it was working to expand the BCG service and address the sizeable waiting list that grew during the vaccine shortage.

The supply shortage was due to technical difficulties at the manufacturer’s laboratory.

Countries across Europe were affected by the shortage, as only one firm manufactures the vaccine in the continent to supply the vaccine.

The BCG immunisation programme has contributed to the dramatic decline in TB over the past 40 years.

Ms Clune also called on health officials to deliver commitments on the recruitment of more staff and to make efforts to tackle the waiting lists.

“Despite this promise, almost a year later Cork’s newborn babies do not have access to the vaccine and 10,000 Cork babies are now on a waiting list for the TB vaccine,” she said.

TB is a serious illness which, in Ireland, usually affects the lungs, and may also affect the glands, bones, joints, kidney and the brain causing meningitis.

The occurrence of the disease was 10.6 per 100,000 in 2005, compared to 230cases per 100,000 in 1952, when thousands suffered and died.