BCG vaccine

BCG Vaccine – Current use, safety & skin test


The BCG vaccine is the only TB vaccine currently available, although there are other TB vaccines under development. Although far from perfect, the BCG vaccine is a relatively inexpensive, safe, and readily available vaccine that is still the only vaccine available for the prevention of human forms of TB.

Who is given the BCG vaccine?..The BCG vaccine is normally given to children as it has been shown to provide very good protection against the disseminated forms of TB in children, including TB meningitis. However the protection provided against pulmonary TB in adults is very variable. So the BCG vaccine is not generally given to adults.

The BCG vaccine is one of the most widely used of all current vaccines, and overall it reaches more than 80% of all new born children and infants in countries where it is part of the national childhood immunization programme.2 The World Health Organisation (WHO) monitors the estimated coverage of the BCG vaccine in every country.

Not every country that could do so gives the vaccine to all children. Generally countries where there is a high level of TB use the BCG vaccine to vaccinate all children. Some countries with a low level of TB, such as the United States and England do not give all children the vaccine, but only those considered at particular risk. The United States has never vaccinated all children, but in the United Kingdom all children were given the vaccine until 2005.

BCG vaccine is recommended for all babies up to one year old who.

• Are born in areas where the rates of TB are high
• have one or more parents or grandparents who were born in countries with a high incidence of TB.

Newborn babies can be given the vaccine soon after birth. Infants less than 6 months of age do not need to be tested with a tuberculin skin test (the Mantoux test) before the administration of BCG, but those over six months of age do.

The BCG vaccination is recommended for all older children and adults at risk of TB including:.

•  Older children with an increased risk of TB who were not vaccinated against TB when they were babies 
• Anyone under 16 who has come from an area where TB is widespread
•  Anyone under 16 who has been in close contact with someone who has pulmonary TB (TB infection of the lung).

The BCG vaccine and the TB skin test

People who have had the BCG vaccine will often then have a positive result to a TB skin test. This makes it more difficult to establish whether someone has latent TB. This is one of the reasons that the vaccine is not used in some countries.7

The skin test will often be given before BCG vaccination. If there is a positive result to the skin test indicating that the person already has some immunity to TB, then the BCG vaccination will not be given. Giving the BCG vaccine to someone who already has some immunity, provides no benefit and could cause unpleasant side effects.

Shortage of BCG vaccineT

here has been a shortage of the BCG vaccine in the European Union since April of 2015. It is now not expected that supplies will return to normal until April 2017.9 In England it is said that supplies of BCG ran out in the summer of 2016.