Coronavirus: BCG Vaccine Gives Hope In Coronavirus Fight? What Co-Author Of Study Says

A new report indicates that the mortality rate is much less in persons who have been vaccinated with BCG.

BCG, a tuberculosis vaccine that millions in India are giving in childhood, may be the new hope in the fight against coronavirus, which has killed more than 80,000 across the world. A new report indicates that the mortality rate is much less in persons who have been vaccinated with BCG. 

Scientists are testing the BCG or Bacille Calmette-Guerin to see if it boosts the immune system to reduce respiratory symptoms in people who get new coronavirus infections.

The vaccine was introduced in the 1920s to fight tuberculosis. India, with the world's highest number of tuberculosis cases, introduced BCG mass immunisation in 1948.

"There is a lot of evidence to suggest that BCG, used to vaccinate against tuberculosis, reduces mortality not just in newborns but a lot of people who have been vaccinated," said Ashish Kamat, professor of Urologic Oncology (Surgery) and cancer research at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who was part of the study on whether countries were BCG is administered have a different trajectory of coronavirus infections.

Dr Kamat told NDTV that a 10-fold difference had been seen between countries that had BCG protocol compared to those that didn't.

The study noted that while the incidence of COVID-19 in nations with a BCG protocol was 38.4 per million, that of nations without was 358.4 per million. The death rate in nations with a BCG vaccination programme was found to be 4.28 per million, while in countries without the programme, it was 40 per million.

The US and other countries without universal policies of BCG vaccination, like Italy and the Netherlands, have been more severely affected compared to countries with universal and long-standing BCG policies.

"The positive message is the benefit conferred upon the Indian population by BCG vaccination, but we cannot be complacent," Dr Kamat told NDTV.

Clinical trials of BCG are focused on two groups at high-risk for COVID-19 -- health care workers at the forefront and the elderly, who are more vulnerable to the deadlier form of infection.

The BCG vaccine contains a live but weakened strain of tuberculosis bacteria that induces antibodies to attack TB bacteria and helps the body develop a defence against the disease.

Unlike other vaccines, the BCG vaccine may also boost the innate immune system, first-line defenses that keep more than one pathogens from causing an infection.

But doctors in India say it is too early to pin hopes on the vaccine, that "large-scale epidemiological studies" are needed before any conclusion.