To think that fascist school attendance policies are responsible for the spread of TB locally

[leftkneeonbackwards]

Well, the policies, and those stupid enough to follow them. and probably measles too, although thankfully, most children make a full recovery from measles. TB leaves many people with life long disabilities though, and I know two young girls who are likely to now be infertile, and a boy with other disabilities. I am sure that TB would not be so widespread if people ignored stupid pointless school threats, were sensible about keeping sick children out of school.

Being rich doesnt protect you but having a bigger less crowded home does. Its not very contagious and having a more spacious home and smaller family size with no one sharing rooms etc reduces risk. Its why its more common in cities.

The point being OP that its not spreading in most schools, so schools attendance is unlikely to be the disease vector behind the rise and its more likely to be other factors locally like frequency of travel, unvaccinated migrant community, larger family size, overcrowded housing, poverty etc.

In our area if you have a baby in a certain hospital you get the tb jab, hospital in the other direction about 10 miles away you didn't get it.

Some London hospitals offer TB vaccination routinely at birth, regardless of ethnicity; because there are higher levels in the local population. My DC was offered it before we were discharged from St Thomas's a few years ago.

My children (or would it have been me?) were offered the TB vaccine 23 and 20 years ago because it sadly was not uncommon then here in SE London. I don't know what the situation is now.

Thanks for the correction, I must have been thinking about another country which has stopped using it. Sorry!

yes @Bemusedandconfusedagain - my births were at a neighbouring hospital.

Do you mean ‘spouting’?

How’s g would you expect the long term under the weather child to be off school?

The answer is to vaccinate again. It worked for TB pre 2000 and it can work again.

OP, if you are in London these children will have been offered vaccination as babies because it’s considered a high risk area (mine all were, and we live in an relatively affluent area of North London). Therefore it’s likely that, as with measles, it’s poor vaccine uptake that’s to blame for any increase in cases. Schools can’t be expected not to encourage good attendance (with all the benefits that brings) because a child might have a relatively rare disease they should have been vaccinated for (and vaccines are free)!

As I said, we are also in London and receive endless letters from school about cases of contagious diseases within the school community - chickenpox, scarlet fever, norovirus etc. - but in nearly four years of my oldest being at primary we have never yet had any cases of TB. There are clearly factors which apply to your school/area and not to others which are causing cases to be higher, and you surely can’t be suggesting that all schools nationwide change their approach to attendance because one school has some children with TB?!

I think TB is not longer routinely given, which is the problem.

Areas in London where TB is endemic in the migrant population, should vaccine children routinely.

Most TB case people are not symptomatic. So even if the child does not have a cough or a cold, they can still carry and the spread the disease to others without knowing.

The main issue is vaccination and not the school sickness policy.

The TB vaccine isn’t provided routinely. DS only got his because of our connection to a country where TB is endemic

Not necessarily. I live in London. Lived in SE London when I had my first and now in NW London where I had my second. DC were offered the BCG both times because DC have a grandparent from a high risk country, but no one else who had a baby at the same time as me was offered one.

Do you live in London? There are no cases of TB where I live…

No it's unvaccinated people to blame! Lots of viruses are most contagious at the very beginning, before any symptoms are shown.

Measles is an incredibly infectious disease and we needs very high vaccine coverage to ensure protection. Vaccination rates have fallen for measles and we are seeing outbreaks in many places.

I am well aware of 20th Century history. I chose the word fascist because it means a philosophy of elevating a doctorial leader that forcibly imposes its own ideals on a community, regardless of the consequences for individuals.

That is what fascist means. Maybe you need to improve your understanding of the word.

No, its meaning is a philosophy of elevating a doctorial leader that forcibly imposes their own ideals on a community, regardless of the consequences for individuals. That is the meaning of the word. It is a word I chose to describe school attendance policies, because that is what they are.

School attendance policies are ineffective at preventing the decline of attendance.

Everyone knows that holidays are cheaper during term time and that’s a major reason for reduction in attendance figures. The policies aren’t draconian.

By "connections with parts of the world where it is more common" do you mean connections with London? 18 in every 100 000 people in London are infected.

I think you will find most people under 20 have had it, in London anyway

It's not brought back nationwide. It's only given to high risk cases.

The schools might be where it's spreading as well, but it's high immigration from areas with TB, overcrowding, cheap and easy travel causing the outbreak. Blaming the schools won't solve it.

YABU - measles is so extremely infectious, by the time a kid realises they feel ill they may already have spread it round the school.

editted because I accidentally wrote YANBU

And who is this 'doctorial' leader? Your kids' headteacher?

And is there any chance that you actually meant 'dictatorial'???