is it true the bcg vaccination has been stopped?
It is worth noting that TB is a difficult disease to catch, requiring prolonged exposure to an infected individual. It cannot be caught by, for example, sitting or standing next to someone who is infected, or visiting or moving to an area of higher risk. The change in the BCG programme was made following recommendations by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which is an independent panel of experts who advise the Government on vaccination and immunisation issues. The JCVI has kept the BCG programme under review since 1989. Based on a careful review of all available scientific and epidemiological data, it advised the Government in July 2005 that it was time to stop the schools-based programme in favour of an improved, targeted neonatal and other ‘at-risk’ based programme. The change in the epidemiology of TB in the UK is the key point of this decision. When BCG was first introduced as a school-based vaccination programme in the 1950s, there were over 50,000 cases
