Additional properties of BCG vaccine discovered
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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The vaccine, designed to counteract tuberculosis disease, additionally protects young children from other neonatal infections - in particular, from respiratory, dermatological, intestinal lesions, while reducing the risk of mortality from these pathologies. This conclusion was made by researchers at the London College of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a well-known research university in Bloomsbury.
Scientists studied more than five hundred newborn babies from West Africa (Uganda), who were divided into two groups: one of them was vaccinated with BCG immediately after birth, and the other one and a half months after birth. All babies were observed by doctors for ten weeks, while any changes and symptoms that occurred were recorded. All infants underwent blood tests, and the degree of innate immune protection was assessed.
According to the results of a blind, randomized controlled trial, conducted at the Entebbe Hospital, it turned out that children who were vaccinated with BCG immediately after birth were 25% less likely to develop infectious diseases than babies who were vaccinated later. The differences were especially pronounced in infants born with underweight or other congenital disorders. Scientists noted that the vaccine protected children not only from tuberculosis infection, but also from other infectious variations - in particular, from common ARVI , respiratory and dermatological infections, and viral diarrhea.
After the babies from the unvaccinated group also received a dose of BCG, the incidence rate in the groups under consideration became almost the same. That is, the immune defense in all children has become equally prepared. Probably, vaccination has the ability to activate the immune system, which begins to actively resist any infections.
Experts note that this is the first such study aimed at studying all possible pathologies from which the vaccine against tuberculosis can protect. The results of the work make it probable that the introduction of BCG vaccines to all newborn infants will help reduce the incidence of neonatal infectious pathologies, as well as mortality in regions with an increased infectious morbidity.
The announced results of the study suggest that the anti-tuberculosis vaccine can, to some extent, counteract the development of coronavirus infection in the body, as well as other new viral lesions.
The research results are published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases .