On April 25, a 5-year-old child attending a kindergarten in Vienne had died of tuberculosis. A vast disease screening plan was then put in place in the entourage of the young boy by the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of New Aquitaine.
This time it was a teacher who replaced the school of the child who was herself diagnosed as disease carrier.
“The Regional Health Agency of New Aquitaine has been informed by the Center for the Fight against Tuberculosis (CLAT) of Vienne of a case of tuberculosis detected, as part of the Smarves screening campaign, in a teacher having made replacements during the 2015-2016 school year in Smarves and this year in 5 communes of Châtelleraudais”said the ARS in a press release.
An additional tuberculosis screening plan in the schools where she worked has therefore just been put in place by the ARS. Seven schools in Châtellerault (Vienne) and in surrounding towns are involved in this campaign.
Since 2007, the vaccine against tuberculosis (the famous BCG) is no longer compulsory. It is only “recommended” for children most at risk, i.e. those with at least one parent born in an area highly endemic for tuberculosis, and all children residing in Île-de-France or in Guyana. This recommendation has since been extended to Mayotte, which became a French department in 2011.
Read also :
Tuberculosis continues to decline in France
Infographic: the figures of tuberculosis
