§ Dr. TongeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the effect of shortages of the TB vaccine on the number of cases of TB; and if he will make a statement. [158972]
§ Yvette Cooper[holding answer 26 April 2001]: Our recommendation for the use of BCG vaccine is based on the advice of an independent expert advisory committee, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). They have advised that the degree of delay in children receiving their BCG would not be accompanied by significant public health risk.
The recent outbreak in Leicester is one such example. Nearly all the children involved in this outbreak had been immunised with BCG as babies or later. Unimmunised children in Years 10 and 11 had also been vaccinated in 1998 and 1999 before the national schools immunisation programme was interrupted. The temporary suspension of the schools BCG immunisation programme has not therefore been a factor.