Could the ordinary TB vaccine improve resistance to Covid-19?

Researchers in Australia and Europe are testing a century-old tuberculosis vaccine to see if it can help the immune system fight off the Covid-19 virus.

The Bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccine was first developed in the early 1920s, and according to Wits University’s Donald Gordon Medical Centre, is routinely given to all South African children at birth because of the prevalence of TB in the country.

It often leaves a familiar scar on the shoulder of people who receive it.

Researchers in Australia are fast-tracking the vaccine with a plan to test it on 4,000 medical workers who are currently on the front line of the fight against the coronavirus.

It is well understood that the BCG vaccine boosts the human immune system, enabling it to more easily recognise and fight threats from a range of bacteria and viruses.

Medical researchers around the world are working to try understand how it affects different populations in the face of the current pandemic.

For example, countries like Italy and the United States have no universal BCG vaccination program, and it is places like these where Covid-19 deaths have been some of the highest.

Meanwhile, countries like Russia and Japan who routinely vaccinate their populations appear to have some of the lowest incidents of Covid-19 deaths.

While researchers are at pains to point out that these observations are by no means proven conclusions, studying trends like these during the current pandemic could yield useful information to fight the disease.

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