The mother of a two-year-old child who has TB has questioned why the vaccine which protects children from the highly contagious disease isn't automatically given to babies in Galway.
The child, who lives in Co Galway, had been feeling unwell for a number of months and her condition was diagnosed in recent weeks.
The toddler suffered from fatigue, severe weight loss, lack of appetite, fever and night sweats. The diagnosis was made following skin tests, a chest X-ray, as well as a number of blood, urine and gastric tests.
The child's parents firmly believe none of these difficulties would have arisen if their child, like children in most other areas of the State, had been given the BCG vaccination at birth.
The two-year-old will now be on a number of antituberculosis drugs including several antibiotics for at least six months.
"Many of these drugs can cause unwanted side effects. It will, therefore, be necessary for the child to attend hospital regularly to ensure that the antibiotics she has been prescribed are working, and also to monitor her symptoms, liver toxicity levels and other side effects," her mother said.
The child's sibling, a three- month-old baby, is now considered to be at high risk of contracting TB and has also been prescribed antituberculosis medication for a period of six to nine months.
The baby, born earlier in the summer, was not offered the BCG vaccine at birth either.
But guidelines from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee state that all newborn babies should be given the BCG vaccine, but for some reason in Galway the BCG vaccine hasn't in the past been offered to children until they were in fifth and sixth class in primary school.
HSE West confirmed it has now changed its policy and has just started offering the BCG vaccination to all newborns following discharge from hospital.
However, The Irish Timesis aware of infants born in Galway in the past eight weeks who have still not been offered the BCG vaccine. Others who have contacted the HSE requesting it have been told there is a shortage of the vaccine and they will be put on a waiting list for it and will not be seen in a BCG clinic until April next year at the earliest.
The only other county which hasn't been offering the BCG vaccine to newborns is Cork, where there was an outbreak of TB among creche-attending children earlier this year. Some 18 children and two adults became infected.
The HSE South said it was planning to introduce the BCG vaccine for all newborns soon but it could not give a commencement date for this plan.
The HSE said the shortage of BCG vaccine was a European- wide problem which only emerged in recent days. It said this was due to regulatory difficulties being experienced by the Danish manufacturer of the BCG vaccine. But it said it anticipated the HSE would receive fresh stocks of the vaccine in early January.
Meanwhile, the parents of the two-year-old with TB claimed people weren't aware there were hundreds of cases of TB reported in the State every year and that there could be people out in the community who were infectious and who may spread their infection by coughing and sneezing.
Dr Joan O'Donnell, a specialist with the National Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), said the advice of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee was that the BCG vaccine should be given to all babies and that advice should be implemented.
But she said rates of TB recorded among children were low in the Republic.
She said that in 2004, the latest year for which full data is available, there were 10 cases in children under 14 years. This was out of a total of 432 cases of TB reported that year.
And in 2003 there were 24 cases of TB in children under 14 years out of a total of 407 cases of TB reported that year.
Provisional figures indicate 461 cases of TB were reported in 2005.
Dr O'Donnell added that it was important for doctors to be aware of the signs and symptoms of TB as early detection and implementation of therapy was important to prevent its spread.