HSE SAYS TB VACCINE IS GIVEN TO BABIES AT GALWAY HOSPITAL

Date Published: 18-Sep-2010

THE HSE WEST has stated that any babies at risk of getting TB are given the BCC vaccination at University Hospital Galway.It also states that the vaccine will be given to babies and older children on the request of concerned parents. It was responding to claims by a Cork-based consultant that it is the only hospital in Ireland with no BCC vaccination programme for newly born babies.

When contacted by Galway Bay Fm the HSE West has stated that in the west neonatal BCG has always been available to those babies considered at risk and to those whose parents have requested it. Dr Muireann Ní Chróinín, a consultant at Cork University Hospital has made call for the vaccine to be made available to all babies.

She also said that the Galway hospital was the only hospital where it is not given to all newly born babies.

But the HSE statement added that historically the policy in the old Western Health Board area has been to screen all primary school children and offer BCG to those in 5th and 6th classes. It also states that children were considered to be most at risk of coming into contact with TB when they started to circulate and socialise more widely in their teen years.