TB Vaccine Considered For Coronavirus Prevention

BCG vaccination prevents childhood tuberculous and TB meningitis
health care worker with mask
(Precision Vaccinations News)

The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in Melbourne, Australia, announced its infectious disease researchers are preparing to launch a clinical trial of the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine to determine its effectiveness in protecting people from the COVID-19 disease.

Currently, there are no preventive vaccines or therapeutic interventions available to protect people exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes COVID-19 in humans. 

Led by Professor Nigel Curtis, a clinician-scientist who leads MCRI’s Infectious Diseases Research Group, the BRACE trial builds on previous studies which showed that BCG vaccination reduces the level of a virus when people are infected with similar viruses to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. 

Professor Curtis said in a press release published on March 27, 2020, “We hope to see a reduction in the prevalence and severity of COVID-19 symptoms in healthcare workers receiving the BCG vaccination.”

Although originally developed against tuberculosis, and still given to over 130 million babies annually for that purpose, BCG also boosts humans’ ‘frontline’ immunity, training it to respond to germs with greater intensity.

The BCG vaccine is an attenuated, live culture preparation of the Bacillus of Calmette and Guerin strain of Mycobacterium bovis.

Furthermore, the BCG vaccine is used in many countries with a high prevalence of TB to prevent childhood tuberculous, TB meningitis and miliary disease. 

However, BCG is not generally recommended for use in the USA because of the low risk of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the vaccine’s potential interference with tuberculin skin test reactivity.

The researchers hope this improved ‘innate’ immunity will provide crucial time to develop and importantly, validate, a specific anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. 

The proposed trial is based on an existing MCRI trial, which has allowed rapid but thorough human ethics approvals, and involves sites across Australia, such as the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.

“We aim to enroll 4,000 healthcare workers from hospitals around Australia, including the Melbourne Campus’ Royal Children’s Hospital to allow us to accurately say whether it can lessen the severity of COVID-19 symptoms.”

Note: The BCG vaccine should be considered only for very select persons who meet specific criteria and in consultation with a TB expert.

Further information on participating coronavirus vaccine trials, eligibility questions, and protocols, please visit Antidote.

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