A recent study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases indicated that the BCG vaccine can protect newborns from a variety of common infections, such as upper respiratory infections, chest infections and diarrhea.
This research is the first of its kind to thoroughly investigate a full range of diseases that the TB vaccine can protect children from, and indicates that vaccinating all children on the day of birth with BCG can reduce newborn infection and death in areas with high rates of infectious diseases. , Which has the potential to save thousands of lives annually, and the results also increase the likelihood that the vaccine will be used to protect children and adults from COVID-19 and other new infectious diseases.
Led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the study involved a randomized control trial of 560 newborns in Uganda who were monitored for a wide range of diseases.
After 6 weeks, the incidence of any disease decreased by 25% in the group that received the vaccine at birth, compared to the group that had not yet received the vaccination, and it appears that particularly vulnerable groups such as low birth weight children and males are the most protective, and most importantly. However, the TB vaccine appears to protect against mild, moderate, and severe infections.
In the study, healthy Ugandan children were randomly assigned to receive the TB vaccine at birth or at the age of six weeks, and the children were followed up by doctors, for a period of 10 weeks to look for bouts of any kind of disease or infection.
The research team compared the number of times the infants in the two groups presented to doctors with infections of any kind, except for tuberculosis, to see if the presence of the TB vaccine made a difference. They also took blood samples from the two groups to look for differences in the innate immune system, which is The body's first line of defense against infection.
They found that infants who were vaccinated with BCG at birth did not experience any type of infection 25% less than the children who were not vaccinated.
The team cannot definitively say why BCG offered this additional, nonspecific protection, but the research showed evidence of changes in the innate immune system of vaccinated children, which could indicate that the TB vaccine boosts the immune system to work better against any infection.
This prompted researchers to suggest that it could provide protection in the early stages of a new outbreak, such as COVID-19 or Ebola, before specific vaccines are developed.
More studies are already underway to explore whether BCG could play a role in the response to COVID-19, with major trials involving healthcare workers and the elderly.
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