A Cork hospital is to begin screening schoolchildren for tuberculosis after an outbreak of the disease.
3 cases were identified in a primary school in Ballintemple nearly 2 weeks ago.
Screening of the 220 pupils at the school will begin today at St. Finbarr’s Hospital in Cork.
Tuberculosis was identified in 3 pupils on August 10th and they are now being treated under specialist paediatric care.
In 2007 an outbreak of TB at a Cork creche accounted for 21 of the 101 cases reported nationally that year.
It resulted in the re-introduction of the BCG vaccination which had been withdrawn but only in the South for 36 years.
In the wake of these latest instances of the disease Fine Gael has urged health Minister Mary Harney to urgently review TB services across the country.
