TB vaccination - Outbreak forced health service to act

AFTER an inexplicable — and inexcusable — 35-year lapse, parents throughout Cork city and county will heave a sigh of relief that inoculation of newborn babies against TB is to be re-introduced next October.

While the BCG vaccine is routinely available in every other county, that’s not the case in Ireland’s second most populous area outside Dublin.

However, the Health Service Executive (HSE) has been forced into action by the Irish Examiner’s revelation that 10 people in Cork city, including nine pre-school children, were confirmed in the past two weeks as having the disease.

Understandably, parents at two local crèches, where TB has emerged, have been clamouring for re-introduction of the vaccine for all newborn babies.

That it required an outbreak of TB to ensure that all the children of the nation will routinely be protected against this disease is a further indictment of Ireland’s crisis-ridden health service.