TB vaccine shipment arrives, to be tested for 10 days

AMMAN — Jordan has received a shipment of BCG (tuberculosis) vaccines, which were unavailable for months, a Health Ministry official said on Thursday.

“We received the vaccine shipment this week and sent it to the Food and Drug Administration to be tested,” Hatem Azrui, the ministry’s spokesperson, told The Jordan Times, noting that it will take up to 10 days to test the vaccines.

The vaccine was not available in Jordan for two months due to a delay from the supplier who was supposed to deliver the requested shipment in March. 

The BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin) vaccine protects against tuberculosis (TB). In Jordan the vaccine is listed as part of the national vaccination programme and is given to children under the age of one.

According to Azrui, children up to three years old can also take this vaccine as advised by specialised doctors, but it is advisable to administer it before their first birthday.

TB is an infectious bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs. It is transmitted from person to person via droplets from the throat and lungs of people with the active respiratory disease, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) website. 

“In healthy people, infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis often causes no symptoms, since the person’s immune system acts to ‘wall off’ the bacteria.” 

The symptoms of active TB of the lung are coughing, sometimes with sputum or blood, chest pains, weakness, weight loss, fever and night sweats, the WHO website said, adding that the disease is treatable with a six-month course of antibiotics.