Vaccination

AC receives a letter from the nursery that her 5-year-old son attends, informing her that a support worker who briey worked there has been diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and it is, therefore, recommended that he must be vaccinated against TB. AC is worried because her son did not receive the BCG vaccine as an infant as she was told that it wasn’t routinely given in her area. However, she also has reservations because she recalls very vividly that one of her friend’s foster children had become very unwell following the BCG vaccination and had nearly died, although he had subsequently suered a lot of medical problems before being diagnosed with a weak immune system. Worried by the letter, AC tries to speak to his teacher but is informed by the headmaster that she is unavailable as she started her maternity leave the previous week. AC’s parents arrive for lunch where her mother lets it be known that she doesn’t think there is any point getting her son vaccinated as she recalls as a child growing up in India her two older brothers both developed consumption despite being vaccinated. However, her mother

Vaccinating against tuberculosis 172

Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination 173

Future vaccination strategies 178

Summary 181

Further reading 181

concedes that the modern vaccination may be better than the one available in the past. Her father is much more enthusiastic about BCG – he has already received half a dozen courses to treat his bladder cancer and experienced almost no side eects apart from feeling a bit uey sometimes aer a treatment and needing to pass urine more oen than usual, which is annoying as he has to pour bleach down the toilet each time he goes for the entire evening on the days he has the treatment. Despite this, his urologist is very pleased with his response to the BCG treatment and intends to continue using it as ongoing therapy. Her parents leave aer having a heated discussion about whether it is the same BCG that is used to treat cancer and protect against TB. AC decides to phone her sister who lives in London, who has recently qualied as a nurse, to ask her advice. Her sister seems very relaxed about BCG stating that she thinks it is very safe – as well as receiving the vaccination herself prior to starting work, all of her children have received the jab – in fact she thinks that her eldest child may have received it twice because he didn’t initially develop a scar on his arm. AC’s sister doesn’t think her children experienced any problems aer the jab, although her youngest child’s scar is somewhat unsightly and she was still slightly self-conscious about it. AC is reassured but confused as to why her son wasn’t oered TB vaccination whilst her sister’s children were – she suspects cost may be involved as she has read many stories in the media recently about her local health authority attempting to make substantial savings by cutting services. AC spends the rest of the aernoon looking up information on the Internet where she reads about a number of exciting new vaccines being developed, some of which are about to be tested in parts of Africa. She therefore decides to make an appointment to see her general practitioner to discuss alternatives to BCG for her son.