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Home / The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Volume 26, Number 6

Open Access Does BCG vaccination protect against infection with M. tuberculosis?

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BACKGROUND: Protection against infection by the bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine against Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains a subject of controversy. We investigated the association between BCG vaccination at birth and infection by M. tuberculosis.

MATERIAL and METHODS: This was a secondary analysis of data from tuberculin skin test (TST) surveys in Vietnamese schoolchildren between 1988 and 2001. We investigated whether a BCG scar was associated with a lower prevalence of TST positivity, adjusting for BCG-induced variation by varying cut-off values for a positive TST.

RESULTS: We found a positive association between BCG scar and TST positivity. The strength of the association decreased with increasing TST cut-off values; however, it never inverted significantly, irrespective of geographic region and survey year.

CONCLUSION: In Vietnam, BCG vaccination was not associated with reduced M. tuberculosis infection prevalence as measured using TST. This in contrary to a similar study conducted in Tanzania. These contradictory findings may be explained by geographical differences and the relatively high prevalence in Vietnam of the M. tuberculosis Beijing genotype, which is reported to be capable of circumventing BCG-induced immunity.

Keywords: BCG; infection; tuberculin skin test; tuberculosis; vaccine efficacy

Document Type: Research Article

Affiliations: 1: KNCV Tuberculosis foundation, Technical division, The Hague, The Netherlands, Department of Global Health and Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2: KNCV Tuberculosis foundation, Technical division, The Hague, The Netherlands 3: NTP Vietnam, National Lung Hospital, Hanoi, Viet Nam 4: KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, Country office in Vietnam, Hanoi, Viet Nam 5: Department of Global Health and Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Publication date: June 1, 2022

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