FINE GAEL has called for an urgent review of tuberculosis (TB) services in the Republic following the identification of three known cases of the disease at a primary school in Ballintemple in the suburbs of Cork city.
Screening is to get under way at St Finbarr’s Hospital in Cork today following the confirmation of three cases of TB at Ballintemple National School.
The outbreak was identified on August 10th and parents were notified by letter two days later. Following a risk assessment it was decided that all 220 pupils at the school be screened as a precautionary measure.
Local Fine Gael TD Deirdre Clune, and the party’s deputy leader and health spokesman James Reilly TD, said Minister for Health Mary Harney should act immediately.
Ms Clune said the Minister should set up a review of TB services, including the process for administering the BCG vaccination for infants.
“Given that TB can be prevented by vaccination, this incident shows that a full review of TB vaccination is now essential. I particularly want to know why the BCG vaccination programme was discontinued in the Cork area, only to be reintroduced two years ago, even though it was still available throughout the rest of Ireland.”
Mr Reilly said if manpower was an issue in the BCG vaccination programme, then consideration should be given to making single dose vials available to general practitioners who could easily administer the vaccination.
Separately, Prof Joseph Keane, who is a respiratory physician at St James’s Hospital in Dublin, said that a national screening programme for TB needed to be put in place.
Since 2008 newborns in HSE South have been routinely receiving the BCG vaccination against TB after a 36-year gap in the service.
The vaccination is a routine part of neonatal care in most other parts of the country, but was withdrawn in Cork in 1972 over a funding issue.
Calls were made for its reintroduction after a major outbreak of TB at a Cork creche in 2007 accounted for 21 of the 101 cases reported nationally that year.
Historically, the TB incidence rate in the Cork/Kerry region has been slightly higher than the national incidence rate The infected children in Ballintemple have started anti-tuberculosis treatment and are under specialist paediatric care.
Screening is also being offered to family members of the three children who contracted TB. The source of the disease has not yet been identified.
The HSE South says an investigation of this cluster of cases is progressing in line with national TB contact tracing guidelines.
Tuberculosis or TB usually affects the lungs, but can affect any part of the body.
It is a contagious but curable bacterial infection which kills 5,000 people every day.
One-third of the world’s population have TB bacteria in their system but in the vast majority of cases it never becomes active.
In some cases it can be diagnosed as a common illness such as flu and the body’s own immune system fights off the infection without the need for treatment.
A body can be effectively immunised from the disease with childhood inoculation. However, when it does get the better of a person’s immune system, it can be deadly.
The BCG vaccine protects against TB and is usually given to newborn babies, but can also be given to older children and adults who are considered to be at risk of developing the disease.