All at-risk groups must be screened, warns expert

A NATIONAL TB screening programme covering all at-risk groups should be introduced immediately, a respiratory expert has urged.

President of the Irish Thoracic Society, Dr Terry O’Connor, who described the current outbreak of TB among schoolchildren in Cork as “worrying”, warned that the BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) vaccination did not ensure that a person would never contract TB.

Dr O’Connor, a respiratory physician in the Mercy University Hospital, Cork, said communities would remain vulnerable to the contagious disease because of the absence of a comprehensive screening programme.