Disease control - Danger of tuberculosis comeback

The decline in European stocks of the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) is beyond this country’s control. EU regulations require independent verification, and the laboratory in Norway that re-tests the vaccine independently has been having difficulties for some reason.

As a result the release of vaccine has been delayed for the past two months.

Cork is the only county in this country where newborn babies are not vaccinated routinely. The practice was supposed to be rolled out in Cork during October, but this has been hampered by the ban on the recruitment of extra health staff, not dwindling stocks of the vaccine.