11,126 children awaiting TB vaccine
Figures released by the Health Service Executive (HSE) South indicate that, despite the threat of the highly contagious disease, 11,126 children and teen-agers are still on waiting lists for vaccination programmes to prevent infection.
The worst-affected areas include Cork’s northside and southside where 8,558 children are on vaccination waiting lists, with 1,835 left waiting in north Cork and another 733 in the west of the county.
Explaining the situation — described as “extraordinary” by councillors at yesterday’s southern regional health forum meeting — the assistant national director for the HSE South’s Primary, Community and Continuing Care service, Pat Healy, said an increase in demand and difficulties in accessing the vaccine last year had led to the crisis.
In an attempt to overcome the growing figures, Mr Healy said, the HSE last month established the neonatal Bacille Calmette-Guerin programme at Cork University Maternity Hospital to ensure all newborns would receive the vaccine.
To date, 492 newborns have been treated under the programme, with more than 2,000 infants under 12 months and 217 individuals who come from countries where TB is more common being treated as “a priority”.
Mr Healy said 12 extra clinics had been established in Cork to cope with the waiting list levels, with the number of people waiting expected to be significantly reduced within “seven to eight months”.
However, claiming the timeline was overly optimistic, Fine Gael councillor, Tim Lombard, said the figures were of crisis proportions.
“How can you clear a backlog this large in seven or eight months? I’m not a mathematician but those figures don’t add up,” he said.
The figures follow two separate outbreaks of TB in crèches in Little Island and Douglas early last year. An adult worker who was found to be suffering from TB is believed to have been responsible for the infections.
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