ANGRY parents are demanding vaccinations against TB are reinstated in the borough after two confirmed cases of the disease in Bexley schools.

Pupils at Townley Grammar School, Townley Road, Bexleyheath, and St Mary and St Joseph's Catholic School, Chislehurst Road, Sidcup, returned from their summer holidays to discover some of them would have to be screened for the disease after a classmate had been diagnosed with TB.

The Health Protection Agency says both pupils have been treated and are no longer infectious.

Routine testing and vaccination against the disease in all secondary schools - the BGC - was abandoned in 2005.

This followed a Government review which decided only children deemed at risk of the disease would be offered the BCG.

However, the vaccination is still carried out at all Greenwich secondary schools.

Since news of the two TB cases was revealed by News Shopper, the paper has received a stream of calls from anxious parents who fear their children are now being put at unnecessary risk.

One mother whose daughter attends Townley Grammar School says parents were given no option on whether their children would be vaccinated.

She said only the year group of the infected girl had been screened and not even all of them had been offered the vaccination.

The woman said: "A lot of Greenwich children go to Bexley schools. The reality is TB is becoming an issue in Bexley.

"My daughter won't even be offered screening. She cannot get vaccinated on the NHS."

Another mother with children at Townley and Erith schools told News Shopper: "I think everyone should be offered the vaccination to prevent it from spreading.

"I think it is pathetic Bexley children cannot get it."

The agency maintains there is no increased risk to the vast majority of pupils and staff at the affected schools of contracting TB, nor to anyone outside the school.

It says close and prolonged contact with an infected person is needed to contract the disease.

And the agency says it stops being infectious after a couple of weeks of treatment.

Bexley Care Trust says it is following Department of Health advice in not vaccinating every child of school leaving age.

A spokesman said: "Department of Health criteria does not allow us to offer the BCG vaccination on request, but only to those in the high-risk group."

The trust says despite the two recent cases, Bexley is a very low-risk area for the disease, with only 9.6 cases per 100,000 resident population a year.

High risk areas have more than 40 cases per 100,000.