Anyone else paying for their DCs to get the TB vac?

[releasethehounds]

I was recently speaking to the school nurse who informed me that children are no longer routinely given the TB (Tetenus) vaccination, like we had at school. She said that the government considers the disease to be very unlikely to catch, but her personal opinion was to pay to have the vac done privately.

So I'm probably going ahead with the jab for my 10 yr old DD and then again in a few years' time for my 5 yr old DD.

Anyone else doing the same?

Am being very dim tonight but do you mean the some parts of London TB one for babies? I actively avoided that as didnt want yet another vax.

No giant I mean the one we used to have at school around the age of 10 (I'm assuming here that you are a similar age to me!) They used to do a 'heaf' or 'daisy' test first about a week beforehand to see if your skin reacted to it, then they did the vac.

Oh shit I just realised I got the disease name wrong (well it's late and I've had a long day). I meant TB (tuberculosis) - sorry for the confusion.

Yes I remember - there was some valid reason for them stopping though afaik, buggered if I can remember what it was though...

I think the tetanus bit confused me...

I wouldn't give my child BCG vaccine unless they were at particularly high risk.

TB is hard to catch, easily treated and the vaccine isn't terribly efficacious anyway.

My DS had it because the area of London we used to live in was considered 'high risk' for TB. I now live in a 'low risk' area and won't be bothering with my 2nd child. I'm not overly concerned, really.

No I wasn't too concerned either as we live in a very low-risk area, up until the nurse mentioned it. This was during DD2's developmental check and the nurse only mentioned the jab because she knows I also have a 10 year old.

She seemed quite adamant that she would have the jab done privately.

Maybe she has a hidden agenda?

I'm a school nurse and we recommend vaccines to target groups based on their risk; if your children aren't at risk then she shouldn't be pushing a vaccine on to you.

Interesting Sidge - she did actually say that our DDs would be very low risk but still recommended the vac.

I would consider it
We don't get it as we are in a "low risk" area
If we lived 100m down the street we would get it

My understanding was Eldon that the TB jab for babies was actually much worse than some the others in terms of side effects and how it works etc for less efficacy.

Interesting though because I think from other threads that you live in the same NHS Trust area to me

How odd - maybe you should see her again and interrogate ask her why she so strongly recommends it?

The current advice is here.

ginatkatestacks it has very few side effects and doesn't seem to make children systemically unwell (less than most routine vaccines) but you're right in saying it's less effective.

Thanks Sidge - will take a look.

releasethehounds - I had this conversation with the TB nurse in oxfordshire about 4 years ago. She said 'it is a Low Risk area and only London is deemed High Risk'.

When I asked what defined Low Risk the nurse said 'Oh, not many people get it here". I did point out that the reason not many people get it is because a large number of people in the population have been vaccinated but when the cohort falls there will be more incidence.

It seems mad that the Govt go on about MMR and people not being vaccinated but then say people do not need vaccinating againt TB - which is known as 'white death'.

Anyway, we had DS1 and DS2 done privately at age 5 and 3.

IIRC the vaccine was stopped because it was deemed inefficient. A high percentage of vaccinated people developed no immunity to the disease. I personally wouldn't go for it...

my ds got it at birth because of where the hospital was - west london. someone mentioned it's easy to treat - not so - long treatment with antibiotics.