Updated December 30, 2014.
Q. Do my kids need the tuberculosis vaccine? Kathy, Dallas, Texas
A. With all of the recent news reports about drug-resistant tuberculosis, some parents are starting to worry if their own kids are at risk for TB. In the North Texas area, in addition to the now quarantined TB patient from Atlanta, there are reports of four high school students who recently tested positive from an exposure at school.
In addition to worries about TB skin testing, the tuberculosis news reports have some parents wondering if their kids should get a TB vaccine.
Unfortunately, there is not a routine TB vaccine that your kids can get to prevent them from getting tuberculosis.
What about the BCG or Bacille Calmette Guerin vaccine?
While BCG is a vaccine for tuberculosis, according to the CDC, it is mainly used in 'countries with a high prevalence of TB to prevent childhood tuberculous meningitis and miliary disease,' which is TB that has spread beyond the lungs.
The BCG vaccine doesn't do a great job against prevent regular pulmonary or lung TB, which is the main form that children in the United States get, so few children in the United States get the BCG vaccine.
Also, the BCG vaccine can make a child's future TB skin tests difficult to interpret, which is another reason routine use is not recommended. If your child did get a BCG vaccine and is going to have a TB skin test, be sure to tell your pediatrician, so that she knows how to interpret the skin test results.
Sources:
CDC. BCG Vaccine Fact Sheet.
World Health Organization. BCG - the current vaccine for tuberculosis.
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