HEALTH bosses are about to resume routine TB jabs in local schools after a national shortage of the vaccine led to a two-year suspension of the scheme.

East Lancashire Health Authority will begin vaccinations in the next four weeks -- and people have been assured that high risk groups have continued to be inoculated and nobody was put at risk during the break.

The move follows the recent outbreak of tuberculosis in Leicester where 33 cases have been detected so far as well as three other schools being screened for the disease.

But local health bosses have stressed that the outbreak, the worst in Britain for 20 years, had not prompted the resumption of pupil inoculations and there have been no outbreaks locally.

The injections are usually issued every year at the same time every year to Year 9 pupils. A spokesperson from the Montague Health Centre, Blackburn said: "The programme is now back to normal."

Judith Roberts, East Lancashire Health Authority spokeswoman, said: "The injections are being given to schoolchildren as part of the normal vaccination programme."

TB expert professor Peter Ormerod, at Blackburn Royal Infirmary, said: "

There is only one manufacturer of the TB, BCG vaccination which is why there has been a halt in the production process. People who are in the 'high risk' categories such as ethnic minority children and new immigrants have received the inoculations as needed.

"The rate of TB in white children is one in 100,000 and a catch-up programme is under way. There is no cause for concern locally.."

TB, an airborne infectious disease, affects more than 5,000 people in England and Wales every year.

Paul Sommerfeld, head of the action group TB Alert, said usually children pick it up from adults, rather than each other.

The fact that East Lancashire has many residents from the Asian community could also be significant. Experts say that one of the causes for the increase in TB cases in the UK is people coming into the country after spending time in a place with high infection rates.

Symptoms of the disease include unexplained weight loss, prolonged coughs and night sweats.

If you have these symptoms, see your GP immediately.