Experts say newborn babies can get TB, advises on BCG

By Sade Oguntola

FOR Mrs Titilayo Babalola, being told that Esther, her two-month-old baby, had Tuberculosis (TB) was scary. Esther was sick at birth and so her BCG vaccination was delayed till after two weeks for her to fully recover and taken to the Primary Health Care centre near her home.

“When I was told that she had TB, I was scared because I don’t know if it is a problem that can be cured. None in my family has TB. So how will a two-month old baby have TB? Nothing of such happened to her siblings,” retorted Mrs Babalola.

Mrs Babalola, a patent medicine vendor in Ibadan stated that Esther was running a fever and coughing with catarrh. At the Primary health care centre, she had different tests carried out and they said that her White blood Cell (WBC) count was high and referred her to Oni and Son’s Children Hospital.

At the hospital, Esther was admitted for about seven days. After an X-ray of the chest, the mother was told that her baby had TB and referred to Jericho Chest Hospital. She was assured that Esther can be cured and will be given free TB treatment.

Esther, now nine month old, has since recovered. She is no longer coughing and now crawling. Also, tests on her brothers and father found that they do not have TB.

However, Mrs Babalola said she suspected that little Esther probably contracted TB when visitors were holding her as a newborn baby. Of course, she lacked the protection of BCG vaccination as she took the vaccine much later after her naming ceremony.

There’s no doubt lots of people will want newborn snuggles. Everyone knows that it is not so easy to keep visitors away for so long despite newborns being more susceptible to germs and viruses.

But Mr Leke Adenora, a journalist said “What my wife usually does is to resist visitors in the baby’s room to keep the baby safe, saying that he is sleeping. In Africa, it is very difficult to tell visitors not to hold the new baby even when you don’t know if they are the type coming with different germs.”

Certainly, restricting visitors to hold a newborn baby may be difficult. Unfortunately, all that contact with germs people can make babies sick, especially infants. “That is why we always advise mothers that immediately their babies are born, they should make sure that their babies take the BCG injection for them to be protected from infections like TB,” said Mrs Adebimpe Akanji, a nurse working at Jericho Chest Hospital.

Mrs Akanji added, “You don’t know the health status of the person carrying your baby and in that way, you don’t know who may be coughing. Even a normal cough can infect other people. Anybody infected with TB that is coughing can infect 15 to 20 people within a year. Newborns are highly vulnerable because their body immunity is still low, so they can be infected at any time with TB.”

Children too have TB. In Oyo state, for instance, 589 children were diagnosed to have TB in year 2022, Mrs Abimbola Oyebamiji, the state’s Monitoring and Evaluation officer of the Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Unit stated at a four-day review meeting and planning of co-produced USAIDS Breakthrough Action Nigeria Programmes in Ibadan.

According to her, one of the signs that parents of children with TB will see is cough, night sweat, loss of appetite or body weight, failure to thrive.

“A lot of children that had TB had died because parents never suspected they were infected with TB disease. No child should die from TB because both its diagnosis and treatment is free.

“Children can get TB from anywhere, from parents, relatives, social gatherings, playgrounds and even crèches and day care centres. As such when parents see things such as failure to thrive, coughing and so on, they should suspect that something is wrong and promptly take the child to the hospital for proper assessment to rule out TB.”

However, Dr Fatai Tailatu, the Principal Medical Officer, Jericho Chest Hospital declared that children, like adults, get TB when they inhale TB germs when in contact with someone with TB disease that is coughing.

According to Dr Tailatu, while BCG injection will not prevent an exposed child from getting TB, it will ensure that the disease is not severe,

He added, “What we always teach to protect children from getting TB disease is good nutrition. If a child eats a balanced diet, with the BCG vaccination, the child will have a little chance of having the disease.”

Dr Tailatu also declared that it is a misconception that children do not have TB, TB is curable with herbal preparations and rituals performed, TB is caused by voodoo and only the poor get TB.

He added, “Jericho Chest Hospital was established over six decades ago; since then we know that it is curable with medicines and its treatment was free. That has not changed even now; we have treated an uncountable number of people here, children inclusive.”

Moreover, studies say that if given at birth, the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) tuberculosis (TB) vaccine could protect newborns against a variety of common infections, such as upper respiratory tract infections, chest infections and diarrhea, potentially saving thousands of lives a year.

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