Posted on: Thu 25-06-2020

A new study by researchers from Nigeria, United Kingdom and the United States (U.S.) has found out that nations with robust Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination policies are recording lower coronavirus deaths.

They, however, said further enquiries needed to be undertaken to determine the level of protection offered by the immunisation against the Severe Acute Respiratory Coronavirus type 2 (SARS-COV-2) also known as COVID-19.

BCG is one of the routine vaccines given to newborn babies in Nigeria hours or days after birth to shield them from tuberculosis. But the survey, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology and titled, “A Multi-country Level Comparison of BCG Vaccination Policy and COVID-19 Cases and Mortality”, discovered that the common vaccine could contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

The cross-sectional research established the relationship between BCG vaccination policies and coronavirus infections in 178 countries. Information on the BCG programmes of the sampled countries and COVID-19 were extracted from the BCG world atlas and the World Health Organisation (WHO) COVID-19 situation report of April 7, 2020. Chi square tests were used to determine statistical significance. Spearman’s rank-order correlation was also deployed to determine if a relationship existed between BCG policies and COVID-19 cases and deaths in the selected nations.

“Spearman rank-order correlation shows statistically significant, strong negative correlation between countries’ BCG vaccination policies and confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths (BCG policy and confirmed cases – correlation coefficient -0.427, p < 0.0005), BCG policy and COVID-19 related death –correlation coefficient -0.374, p < 0.0005).”

In the absence of evidence, WHO does not recommend BCG vaccination for the prevention of COVID-19. WHO continues to recommend neonatal BCG vaccination in countries or settings with a high incidence of tuberculosis.”

Source: Guardian 

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