BCG Vaccine

[lambethlil]

Does anyone know what the guidelines are currently?

DD2 is 13 and has brought home from school a Lewisham Healthcare NHS leaflet.

I cannot understand it.

I can't find a web link to it, but I think its saying that children from minority ethnic backgrounds and those who travel to countries where tuberculosis is prevalant need it, or maybe that's just the skin test.

Any advice?

It's not a standard vaccination any more so only those that are at a higher risk of BCG will be offered it.

BCG

higher risk of TB I mean!

Thank you Seona I think I'll contact the team directly- DD2 does fulfil the requirements, I think- she's lived in China and visited India.

I just received a letter saying DS2 who's 5 needs to have a BCG. Tbh I'm in two minds about it. Don't get me wrong I fully support vaccination and my boys have had every one so far. My concern is that DS2 has only been selected to receive the vaccination because my mum emigrated here from a country where TB is prevalent. This doesn't take into account that she has lived here since 1966, she is immune to TB and DS2 is not in contact with any other members of her family (apart from me) because they all live in Canada. Take these factors into account and I don't see that his risk is any higher than most of his fears.

On the other hand maybe I should be glad that DS2 will be protected against a particularly nasty disease and it will save him having to have the vaccine when he's older if he wants to go travelling to exotic places.

My final concern is that if it is deemed necessary for DS2 to have this vaccination then should I be trying to arrange for DS1 to have it as well since his risk factors are exactly the same?

I thought that TB was making a comeback in London.

We all had BCG in France when I was a child. It's not a pleasant vaccination but it's got to be better than getting TB. You get an abcess that lasts for months from the jab.

Has she had the cuti test?

Duchesse apparently they don't do that anymore, they just give the vaccination without testing for immunity.

Also we live in rural Northern Ireland where the risk of TB is probably as low as it gets in the UK.

Stuntnun- I regret that I didn't send DS for BCG (his grandfather was born in India so qualified - but he was there as a British citizen until aged 7 and only returned recently for a holiday!) I thought he was in same risk as if his Grandad had been born in London where he lived as he grew up.

However, all the kids going on World challenge type expeditions are now recommended to have this, and his friend (went to Malawi) had to spend a fortune to get it. DD was vaccinated as routine when she was that age.

In this area anyone in some postcodes get it at age 5 and high risk families at birth. Kids in adjoining postcodes / next street etc do not.

They don't do BCG in France anymore, although there are few departments which are more at risk and for people living in them it's still recommended.

We live in Paris, so one of the 'risky' ones but DC's paediatrician said that it's outdated and doesn't work well (as in protects against only some of the strains) so DD didn't have it.

Stuntnun, we're in rural NI too and were offered it for the same reasons as you. We didn't go for it.

Milliways that is a good point. When we were vaccinated as kids we were 12, it seems to be a nasty injection to give to a 5 year old.