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NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
The Northwest Territories' health department has begun vaccinating newborns and babies against tuberculosis now that a replacement vaccine has been found.

In June, Sanofi Pasteur, the only company in Canada that produces the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine used to prevent serious forms of tuberculosis, voluntarily recalled the vaccine.

Concerns about the company's manufacturing plant were blamed for the recall, according to a press release from Health Canada.

"Health Canada is advising Canadians that Sanofi Pasteur is voluntarily recalling all Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine on the market because of problems in the manufacturing facility that Health Canada believes may have affected the vaccine quality," the release stated.

Amy Lea, a communicable disease consultant with the GNWT Department of Health and Social Services, said the new vaccine is from Japan and has been in production since 1952. Since then, more than two billion doses have been given in 50 countries around the world.

Lea said the health department has implemented a "catch-up" program that will immunize babies that haven't yet been vaccinated.

Most babies in the territory are vaccinated against tuberculosis before they are discharged from the hospital after they're born, Lea said.

But because the vaccine wasn't available, regional health centres kept track of babies that were being sent back to their home communities without it.

Now, there are approximately 126 infants on the waiting list. Those babies can be vaccinated at their local health centre, provided there are nurses qualified to give the vaccine. If the nurses in a community don't have the specifications required, babies will have to get the vaccine in another community, such as Yellowknife.

"Some people will be done in their home communities and some will be done in larger centres," Lea said. "It's just the capacity of the local nurses."

Lea said the side effects of the new vaccine are the same as the old one. Parents must give consent before babies are vaccinated and information regarding the vaccine is provided during that consultation, she said.

"All of the information that's related to side effects are the same as the products we've had previously," she said.

"Part of the process of informed consent is talking about the side effects of BCG vaccine," she said.

Lea said health centres will be directly contacting people on the waiting list to let them know the vaccine is now available.

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