More than 400 pupils at a Derby secondary school are to take part in a vaccination programme for tuberculosis (TB) after a 14-year-old pupil was suspected of having the disease.

Medical staff from the Southern Derbyshire Health Protection Unit are currently looking into the case of a pupil who attends Littleover Community School.

The girl, who has not been named, is believed to have been taken ill on Christmas Eve and admitted to hospital, where she is said to be improving.

Pupils aged 12 to 14, in years eight and nine at the school, had been due to be screened for TB later in the year.

But, after a meeting between health officials and school staff, it was decided to bring forward the vaccination programme.

Dr Roy Fey, consultant in communicable disease at the Derbyshire Health Protection Team, explained: "Although people will be concerned, I would like to reassure them that the risk of transmission of TB to other children or staff at the school is low.

"Past experience has shown that very few secondary cases have come from an infected schoolchild.

"The chance of another case is greatest in family contacts. This is a single case and we have no evidence of an outbreak."

He said that although guidelines did not recommend any action at this stage, a routine skin testing and vaccination programme due at the school later this year would be brought forward to next week.

Parents of pupils at Littleover Community School received letters informing them of the situation, and a leaflet about TB.

Over the past nine years there has been an average of 62 cases of TB notified in Southern Derbyshire residents.

Head teacher David Nichols said: "This is a single suspected case and we have no reason to believe that it has spread to other pupils who may have had contact during December.

"At this stage, screening of our first year pupils in year seven is not recommended, but the need for further screening will be reviewed later."

The screening will also be an opportunity for any pupils in years 10 to 13 who missed previous programmes to take part.

Dr Fey and his team will be at the school for any parents who wish to ask more questions on Thursday from 6pm to 7pm.

The screening programmes in other schools will be unaffected and continue.

Disease is passed on by coughs and sneezes
Tuberculosis, or TB as it is more commonly known, is a disease caused by a bacterium which can affect any part of the body, often the lungs.

The symptoms include a persistent cough, shortness of breath, tightness of the chest, loss of appetite, weight loss, fever, lumps in the neck or swelling of the joints.

Some types of TB are infectious, but close contact over a long period of time is needed to pass on the disease.

It is spread by a person with TB coughing and sneezing the germs from their lungs on to other people.

Antibiotics are used to treat people and although the length of the illness can vary, people can generally resume their normal activities 14 days after starting treatment.

For more information, contact NHS Direct on 0845 4647.