Researchers at the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Children’s Hospital recently partnered with the Expanded Program on Immunization Consortium, an international team studying early life immunization, to collect and comprehensively profile blood samples from newborns immunized with the century-old Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, using a powerful “big data” approach.
The century-old Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine against tuberculosis is one of the world's oldest and most widely used vaccines, used to immunize 100 million newborns every year. Given in countries with endemic TB, it has surprisingly been found to protect newborns and young infants against multiple bacterial and viral infections unrelated to TB. There's even some evidence that it can reduce severity of COVID-19.
In a recent study posted to the bioRxiv preprint server, the researchers investigated the impact of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine-induced antibodies against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike (S) glycoprotein.
On World Tuberculosis Day, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) called for urgent investment in resources, support, care, and information for the fight against tuberculosis (TB). Every day, more than 70 people die from TB in the Americas. And an estimated 18,300 children aged 15 years and under are living with TB in the Americas.