SECONDARY school pupils in Darlington have received their tuberculosis vaccinations for the final time before a decades-old system changes.

Almost 200 pupils at Carmel Technology College received their TB vaccinations from a team of school nurses.

But in an effort to improve services, future generations of children will receive their injections in the final year of junior school.

Darlington Primary Care Trust's school nurse team leader, Joyce Varley, said: "Comprehensive schools tend to be big, busy and bustling places and often the pupils get their arms knocked after the vaccination.

"It is better practice to do it in smaller schools, which are quieter and more sympathetic surroundings.

"It will mean more work for us, as there are 35 junior schools, but it will be better for the children."

In Victorian times, TB was rife in Darlington because of poverty and unsanitary conditions.

The 21st Century has seen its re-emergence because of the ease of world travel to countries where the disease is still prevalent.

School pupils undergo initial skin tests to assess whether they already have TB immunity, but in 98 per cent of cases they require the vaccination.