DOCTORS in York today reinforced a "don't panic" message after a major tuberculosis (TB) alert from the city's hospital.

Yesterday we revealed the shock news that a nurse on ward 16 at York Hospital had come down with the disease - which used to be a major killer in the UK.

As soon as the case was confirmed, the hospital wrote to 500 patients who had been through the ward warning them they could be at risk. The letters were sent on Wednesday night and hundreds of patients were yesterday preparing to receive them.

But GPs contacted by The Press gave further reassurances that people should not panic about the news and praised York Hospital and the sick nurse for their handling of the matter.

Dr Brian McGregor, a GP at Gale Farm Surgery, in Acomb, said one of his patients was expecting to get a letter.

He said: "The nurse has acted appropriately. She's immediately removed herself and she's dealing with it in a sensible and professional manner.

"You can have it for months before you realise you've got it. It's an insidious illness that does gradually cause decline. It's very, very rare. I think we've had three cases in this area over the past four or five years.

"I wouldn't be overly worried. A lot of elderly patients have been immunised as children. For those who weren't immunised, if you've got reasonable fitness levels then it's okay.

"I think the hospital has acted appropriately."

Dr David Fair, from Jorvik Medical Practice, said: "It all seems reasonable to me - the hospital has taken immediate action to try to prevent the spread of the disease.

"It's a reminder that doctors and nurses are prey to getting the same sorts of infections as everybody else. It's an occupational hazard that we put ourselves at risk of.

"TB used to have a worse stigma - it used to be nearly always fatal. Nowadays, it's treated with antibiotics and it's completely curable."

In December last year, we revealed how teenagers in this area would no longer be offered a BCG jab to protect them against TB when they asked for it - under new Government rules.

Parents were told their child could only be vaccinated if its parent or grandparent was born in countries with a higher risk of TB, including Afghanistan, China, El Salvador, Iraq, Morocco or Portugal, and had not already been given it.

Dr Robin Ball, district immunisation co-ordinator, said it was better not to have the BCG jab if the risk of TB was low, as it was not a very effective vaccine and there were advantages to not being given it.


Case study

Lynne Martin, niche publications editor for Newsquest York, was a patient in York Hospital's ward 16 for nine days this January and is therefore expecting to get one of the warning letters from the organisation.

Lynne, 57, said she was not particularly worried about the possible risk of TB infection on her ward as she had been immunised against the disease when she was young.

She said: "I feel there could be worse things. I had a TB jab when I was younger so I'm not unduly concerned about it. I feel it's unfortunate for anybody like me who didn't have the jab at school. If there was somebody in there who didn't have the jab because the automatic programme ended, they're probably more at risk than I am."