Bradford health chiefs are to restart the district's school tuberculosis vaccination programme.

Pupils aged between ten and 14 will be offered the BCG jab as protection against the Victorian killer from September.

The move follows a recent outbreak of TB which struck 50 youngsters at a school in Leicester - which is believed to be the worst outbreak for 20 years.

The school vaccination programme was suspended in September 1999 due to a national shortage of the vaccine.

A spokesman for Bradford Health Authority today said there had been between 140 and 150 cases of TB each year in the district, but stressed that most of the cases were not infectious.

She said: "The risk of TB is very low and the best option is to offer vaccination at school level. It's a specialist service by nurses and we will be catching up from September.

"There is not a shortage of the vaccine and we're certain that all the children leaving school at the end of this year will also have been offered the vaccine."

Babies at high risk of the disease, such as those from South Asian communities or immigrants, were vaccinated after birth despite the school's programme being interrupted.

Recent figures show Bradford suffers three times the national average number of cases of TB, with 10.9 people per 100,000 infected compared to 9.4 ten years earlier.

Nationally, cases have risen from about 5,700 in 1987 to 7,000, with London at the centre of the spiralling outbreaks.

The schools vaccination programme was reinstated in the capital last July. Other health authorities were given the go-ahead to catch up in March.

Symptoms of TB include a cough lasting for more than three weeks, phlegm which may contain blood, loss of appetite, fever, night sweats and tiredness.