BCG vaccine used against TB can protect Type-1 diabetic patients from Covid-19: Study

According to research, the BCG vaccine was safe, effective, affordable, and potentially protective against every changing viral variant of Covid-19, based on its broad-based protection against other infections.

The vaccine is an avirulent tuberculosis strain Mycobacterium Bovis. It is administered to protect against tuberculosis and, since its introduction in 1921, has been the most widely administered vaccine in the history of medicine.

In India, the BCG vaccine is made at King Institute in Guindy in Tamil Nadu. The laboratory was set up in 1948, and the first dose of the vaccine was administered in August of the same year.

The BCG vaccination was extended to schools in almost all states of the country in 1949, and since then every child in the country is being administered the BCG vaccine.

High efficacy

The study was conducted on 144 individuals. Of them, 96 were given the BCG vaccine while 48 were given a placebo to analyse Covid-19 infection rate, symptoms, reduction of overall infections disease, and SARS-CoV-2 antibody-level presence and intensity over 15 months.

The researchers conducted the trial much before the Covid-19 vaccines came into the market.

The study found that the BCG vaccine was 92 percent effective against Covid-19. The researchers found that 12.5 percent of the placebo-treated individuals and 1 percent of BCG-treated individuals showed Covid-19 outcomes.

The study further stated that the BCG-vaccinated people also displayed protective effects against other infectious diseases, and no systemic adverse event occurred.

“We found that three doses of BCG vaccine administered prior to the start of the pandemic prevented infection and limited severe symptoms from Covid-19 and other infectious diseases. Unlike the antigen-specific vaccines currently in use to prevent Covid-19, the BCG vaccine’s mechanism of action is not limited to a specific virus or infection,” said Denise Faustman, a lead researcher from Massachusetts General Hospital.

The BCG vaccine’s broad-based infection protection suggests that it potentially provides protection against new SARS-CoV-2 variants and other pathogens.