Newborn babies in TB scare

Babies at the Leicester Royal Infirmary were at risk

More than 100 babies are to be offered treatment after coming into contact with a doctor infected with tuberculosis (TB).

While experts at Leicester Royal Infirmary have stressed that the risk of any baby catching the disease is tiny, they want to place 134 babies on a course of antibiotics as a precaution.

The doctor, who has not been named, had been working in the neonatal unit at the hospital. He is now on sick leave.

He had been working at the unit for six weeks before the lung infection was diagnosed, and his condition has been described as "infectious".

Special clinics

Parents have been contacted, inviting them to attend clinics on Friday and the following Monday at the hospital.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said that as babies have no natural resistance to TB, and as it is not possible to test them for it, it was "safer to assume" that all exposed babies may have been infected.

"The consultant paediatricians have therefore decided to offer all babies a three month course of antibiotics as a preventative measure," she added.

Dr Philip Monk: 'antibiotics will protect babies'

Leicestershire public health doctor Philip Monk said: "what we are saying to the parents is come along to the clinics, we will put your babies on antibiotics and that will make your baby better."

Staff who worked with the doctor concerned are also being informed.

Only around 5% of those infected develop TB - although this can prove fatal.

It is estimated that around 400 people in Britain die of TB each year.

There has been a 13% increase in the number of TB cases in Britain in the fist quarter of this year compared with last.

Some experts say this is likely to rise even further following a Government decision to suspend the national BCG vaccination programme due to a shortage of supplies.