BCG jab for children

[Debra]

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[Lollie]

Well I paid here 20 euros for the visit to the doctor for the prescription for the tester, he had some in stock so we just had to replace at our next visit, I think it was about 5 euros for the pharmicist, one prescription was sufficient for both my children, then later 20 euros for second visit and another 5 euros for the actual vacinne, which once again was sufficient for both children,  around 50 euros altogether, all was refunded by CPAM and our mutuelle,  I guess if you have just arrived, keep your receipts until you are affiliated into the system then you willl get at least 70% back.

Beware of swimming after the vacinnes though, it took over four months for my sons to heal,as he had swimming lessons each week.

Lollie 44

[Val_2]

These and all other jabs are completely free of charge at the local Socio Médico centre clinic which is part of the local hospital health authority here. Look them up inthe phone book and also the local paper as to when they hold their monthly open clinic and just go along with your papers. They will even furnish you with Carnet de Santé books for the kids to use when their french schools demand to see them. Why pay out when you don't have to even with health insurance. Its useful for the older people too who need to top up their tetanus jabs every ten years etc.

[Debra]

Great - thanks for the info.  We'll say no to the private clinic here then!!

[Jo53]

I really wouldn't panic about this. Our children started school without having had the BCG. It was just a case of 'OK, get it done some time then'. And the schools never checked to see whether or not it had been done. Just say on the enrollment form that it is to be arranged, and all should be fine.

Jo

[Me0wp00]

Your local PMI (see phone book) will usually do vaccinations free of charge, my little one has had all his jabs and it didn't cost anything.  Otherwise go the a french doctor and get them done, if you just pop in and ask the secretary for a prescription, then go to the chemists to pick it up and go to docs for him to give the injection it'll be cheaper than having two appointments with the doctor and one just for a prescription.

[Wendy]

We purchased the vaccine on advice from from the clinic after our son was given the tester.We went along to the local doc after the required 48 hours only for him to say it was no longer obligatory for kids to have the jab. So we didnt bother having our son done.

[Dick Smith]

There is a difference between obligatory and sensible. I wanted my kids protected.

[Kiera]

My son's school arranged for the school doctor to give him his BCG, as he hadn't had it done in the UK.

Sadly the year before we returned to the UK a child living in the same small town where my son's school was located contracted TB and died from complications, she hadn't had the BCG vaccine.

Kiera

[Mistral]

Wen, I'm afraid your doctor is wrong.  A lot of doctors in France believe that the BCG is no longer sufficiently effective (and they could well be right)  So several people here have been told by their doctors that there's no need to do it. For the last 5 years or so, there has a been a movement to make it non obligatory and rumours that soon (always "soon", but it's been "soon" for years) children won't need it. But there is a difference between a medical need and a "legal" need.  For the moment, the education ministry  still says it is obligatory to register at a school. Here's the link: http://www.education.gouv.fr/prat/inscripmat.htm Even if one directeur/principal accepts children without the BCG, if they leave and replaced by another, there is no guarentee the new one will accept (and even less likely the school doctor will)

The oler the child, the less likely the school is to check, they assume it will already have been done. My collège only asked to see the carnet de santé for inscriptions once when the principal was having a zealous moment.

[opas]

I believe Debras children are around the ages of 7-9 years, If her school is to be anything like ours they will be constantly reminded to update their jabs, no bad thing in our case as Tetanus boosters were given this year!

[Val_2]

When my daughter went to collège she had a Hepatitis B jab I think it was but they seem to have stopped those now as the boy didn't have to have one a couple of years later. Anyone know what happened there?

[Debra]

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[Berlioz]

Debra

I asked our GP in the Uk about a BCG for our 11yo (16yo had just had it done in school)  We got a referal form to the chest clinic at the local hospital 10 miles away, had the prick test and the jab 2 days later. No charge.  the following week we got a signed printout of all the vaccinations they had had since birth inc. the bcg.  All free under the NHS and no hassle.  I just explained that it was necessary for French school (bit like typhoid for holidays I suppose...) no problem.  We included the printouts with the school applications and just today the College confirmed the place for our youngest.

I just wish the rest of our move was going so smoothly!

Donna

 

 

 

[Wendy]

I cant work it out though, that in this country, where the health system and standard of health care is supposed to be 'the best', why TB is still a problem?. If it is obligatory, and all kids get the jab, then why is it not eradicated?. And are they anywhere near to eradicating it?. Australia stamped it out a long time ago.

[Kiera]

Perhaps the reason for TB not being eradicated in France, despite immunisation programmes is that France is not an island and as with most of Europe, borders can be freely crossed, by people carrying diseases. In Northern France the UNHCR reported many cases of TB within the Sangatte camp, people move and without prevention/treatment the disease moves with them . London has seen a resurgence of TB in recent years, but vaccination programme is ending in the school my son now attends in Kent.

 

Kiera

[Tourangelle]

Absolutely, it is because of people coming into the country.  People apparently sometimes die of plague still in Marseilles, it's because they have just arrived, not because there is an outbreak in France!![:D]

[Wendy]

Keira you are right. Actually, it was eradicated in Australia until the early 80's when unchecked immigration from certain parts of South East Asia saw people, entire families in fact, arriving with the disease. I worked in the X Ray dept of a major Sydney hosp and saw them arriving  for their chest x -rays after just getting off the planes. All at the taxpayers expense!. However it did not become prevalent enough for immunisation to be reintroduced. This is the problem with this 'no borders' EU I suppose. With this in mind I will have my son innoculated asap.

[Kiera]

When I started my RGN training in a London teaching hospital in the late 1980’s we were all told that it was unlikely that we would ever see a case of TB in our nursing careers, by the time I left in the 1990’s I seen at least a dozen – a few cases who were newly arrived in the UK, but the majority of sufferers were from the homeless population of London. Personally I still think it’s worth keeping children up to date with BCG.