TB schoolboy making 'good recovery'

Stavlon Carvalho is a pupil at Aberdeen Grammar School

A 14-year-old Aberdeen schoolboy suspected of suffering from tuberculosis is making a good recovery, hospital officials have said.

The Aberdeen Grammar pupil, who has now been named as Stavlon Carvalho, was said to be "satisfactory" in the city's Royal Infirmary.

The third year schoolboy was taken to hospital last month after he complained of feeling unwell.

His parents, who spoke for the first time since the news was made public, told the Press and Journal newspaper: "We are pleased to say our son is making good recovery and he is looking forward to being home again soon."

More than 8,000 pupils in the area were not vaccinated

The youngster was one of 8,000 pupils in Grampian who did not receive immunisation against the disease.

Earlier this week, Grampian Health Board official Dr Arun Mukerjee said the vaccination would have prevented this particular case.

He said: "He should have been immunised if the vaccine had been made available at the right time.

"If he had had the vaccination when he had been due I'm fairly certain that this could have been prevented."

The health board stressed that there was no link between the case at the school and two other TB cases involving workers at nursing homes in Aberdeen and Ballater.

Contracting tuberculosis

All 210 pupils in Stavlon's year will be screened next month although Grampian Health Board has said that no other youngsters or members of the boy's family were showing signs of any symptoms.

The board has since decided that pupils in the area who have missed out on immunisation over the last two years will receive TB jabs in September.

The Carvalho family are expected to find out if Stavlon has contracted tuberculosis within the next fortnight.

The Scottish Executive announced in March this year that the BCG vaccination programme was to be relaunched, although it will be 2002 before it will catch up with pupils who have missed out and the normal programme can resume.

A number of Scottish health boards, including Lothian and Greater Glasgow, have begun limited vaccination programmes, but will restart the full programme next year.

Nursing home

Grampian Health Board said on Wednesday that a domestic worker at an Aberdeen nursing home is being treated for tuberculosis.

It said her condition is not infectious, so there is no need to screen other patients or staff at the home, which has not been named.

It emerged last week that residents and staff at the St Andrews Nursing Home in Ballater were to be screened for the disease after one member of staff was confirmed as suffering from TB.

The cases follow incidences of the disease at schools in Leicestershire and South Wales.