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The use of the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine has been used in India and several countries for vaccinating the newborns against tuberculosis. Some of the US Scientists believe that this BCG vaccine could be a game changer altogether.
The study conducted by the researchers from the New York Institute of Technology suggests that the “severity of coronavirus impact may be linked to national policies on BCG childhood vaccination.” The study is in progress and is yet to be published. It has cited countries like Italy and the US as examples.
Gonzalo Otazu, assistant professor of biomedical sciences in NYIT who is also the lead author of the study stated saying that they have noticed that the countries with universal policies of BCG vaccinations have reported lesser cases in comparison to the ones which don’t like Italy, US and Netherlands.
United States has already reported 1,90,000 confirmed cases with over 4000 deaths while Italy has confirmed 1,05,000 cases with over 12,000 deaths. Netherlands has reported over 12,000 cases with over 1000 deaths.
As per the observation from the study, it is believed that the combination of the morbidity and mortality is what is expected to be the game changes with the BCG vaccine included.
When it comes to India, BCG vaccination is an universal prospect for every newborn in the country’s immunisation programme. It is administered to millions of newborns either at birth or soon after it.
Given that India once reported one of the highest rates of TB, introduced the mass immunisation with BCG back in 1948 to control the spread.
Several of the Indian scientists believed and were hopeful for the same but also said that it is to early to make a statement on the same.
Monica Gulati, senior dean, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Lovely Professional University (LPU), Punjab stated saying, “Every small thing gives us a ray of hope. It will be premature to say anything now. But the silver lining is that the BCG vaccine has proved quite effective against the SARS infection also.”
She further stated saying that the administration of the BCG vaccine was not a cure for the disease but did help in improving the overall symptoms that came along with the condition.
Gulati believes that since the novel coronavirus doesn’t have an extensive impacts on the universally immunised BCG vaccine countries like India is a possible ray of hope at the moment.
Deepak Verma of the department of Internal Medicine, Columbia Asia Hospital, Ghaziabad has stated saying that further research needs to be conducted to see how the TB vaccine is effective in preventing the possible spread of the virus altogether.
Majority of the Indian scientists from various institutes and research centres across the country believe that the NYIT research does show potential but needs more scientific evidence to be touted as effective.
Rakesh Mishra, director of the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad has stated saying, “We have come across the study, but we don't have a lot of scientific details about it. At the same time it is interesting, but this is not something we can depend on while making policies or approaches against COVID-19.”
Several of the researchers who looked into the potency of the BCG vaccine have stated that it imposes broad ranging protection against several of the respiratory infections, this novel coronavirus being one of them.
The study also mentioned the plan of the Australian researchers to fast track the testing of the BCG vaccine as a potential treatment for covid-19.
According to the conclusions drawn from the study, it has been found that the impacts and the mortality rates from the novel coronavirus has been a lot less in the universally adapted BCG immunised countries in comparison to the ones which don’t.
Currently, 157 countries across the country have the universal immunisation recommedations with the BCG vaccine while the rest 23 countries have stopped the same because of the reduced incidence of TB and similar cases.
By Somapika Dutta
