Tuberculosis (TB) Nursing Service

Our Community Tuberculosis service provides advice and information regarding tuberculosis (TB) to the public and healthcare professionals.

We provide community-based support and care to adults and children who have been diagnosed with TB, both in their homes and in nurse-led community clinics. We also ‘contact trace’ and offer testing and BCG vaccination, if required, to known contacts of people with TB. TB is a notifiable disease and it is important to stop the spread of infection.

We carry out BCG (TB) vaccinations in nurse-led community clinics following the current risk assessed programme. Children under 16 are now risk assessed and offered the BCG vaccine if they were born in or have a parent or grandparent from a country of risk, or if there is a history of TB in the family in the last five years. A high risk country is one with a TB incidence of >40 per 100,000 population. Some other risk groups can be offered BCG vaccination, i.e. healthcare and veterinary staff.

New entrant screening to detect active and latent TB (and BCG vaccination) is offered to those arriving from countries with a TB incidence of >150 per 100,000 of population, and staying in the UK for 6 months or more. Interpretation and translation services are available.