Children’s vaccine clinics suspended despite TB outbreak

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) has been forced to suspend BCG clinics for children in north Cork because staff who normally administer the vaccine have been drafted in for the roll-out of the cervical cancer vaccine.

The decision has been taken at a time when public demand for the BCG vaccine has increased in Cork because of an outbreak of TB in a national school. The BCG offers protection against the disease.

The HSE said it had “been necessary to suspend BCG clinics for older children in north Cork” to facilitate the HPV programme which aims to protect more than 57,000 schoolgirls from developing cervical cancer as adults.