TB vaccine may limit deaths by corona virus

There is no doubt that coronavirus has proved to be one of the most fatal diseases which the humans have come across. Now it all depends on the scientists and other medical professionals that how fast they can make a vaccine.

View this post on Instagram

Biraj Swain writes. As this piece is being written, the COVID-19 global infection numbers have crossed the million mark and deaths are inching close to 60,000. In India, the numbers provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is 2,650 infected and 68 dead. There has been a massive spike in infections and deaths since mid-March. On March 16, the infected case load globally was 182,414 – which, has crossed the million mark and stands at 1,118,559 with 59,226 deaths. There are 44 vaccines in early stages of development, but still no cure. Meanwhile, the world is latching on to any and every glimmer of hope. First, it was the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which resulted in some doctors self-prescribing and stock-piling hydroxychloroquine. Now it is the Baccilus Calmette-Gue’rin (BCG) vaccine. A study by researchers at the New York Institute of Technology (non peer-reviewed, pre-print, open for public scrutiny) hypothesises that countries like India, China and Brazil have lower COVID-19 cases and even lower fatalities because of their universal BCG vaccination programme. The study led by Gonzalo Otazu compares 56 countries’ COVID-19 infections and fatalities and proposes the BCG could be the answer to combatting the deadly coronavirus. BCG is a century old, very cost effective vaccine which is given to prevent meningitis and TB in children. Low and middle income countries which have continued with the universal immunisation programme of BCG, have shown lower incidence of COVID-19 infections while high income countries like the United States, Netherlands and Italy, which discontinued the vaccine (and administered it in a targeted manner in some TB burden localities) have a much higher case-load. More in the link in bio . . . . . #coronavirusindia #covid19 #coronavirusoutbreak #bcgvaccination #bacilluscalmetteguerin #tuberculosis #india #vaccination #bcgvaccine

A post shared by The Wire (@thewirein) on Apr 4, 2020 at 9:30pm PDT

Recently scientists and researchers at the University of Sydney have been experimenting on existing tuberculosis vaccine. The aim was to use it in a unique way in order to derive characteristics which may fight the COVID 19 virus.  Centenary Institute has also collaborated with the University of Sydney in this project. The researchers will examine the response of this new vaccine. Bacille Calmette-Guérin is the name of that tuberculosis vaccine.

View this post on Instagram

Route of injection is crucial for protection against tuberculosis (TB) TB is a deadly infection by the bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The current means of prevention is a century old vaccine made by attenuating (weakening) the pathogenicity (virulence) of a related bacteria Mycobacterium bovis in the early 1900s. The vaccine known as bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG) is effective against early childhood forms of TB but has not been able to provide the desired protection against the disease and the required immune ability to clear out the infection in adult cases of TB. . . A large research effort is put in to improve the vaccine in order to make it more effective. The recent study published in Nature journal used the same old BCG vaccine and tested different routes of administration and compared it to the current intradermal injections. Rhesus macaques were vaccinated through intradermal route (under the skin layer called epidermis), aerosol route (directly to lung), combination of these 2, increased intradermal dose or through intravenous (i.v.) route. The monkeys were exposed to the TB bacteria 6 months later and the i.v. vaccinated monkeys were completely protected against the disease as opposed to modest protection obtained from the other routes of vaccination. This is an unprecedented success against TB infection. . . Different cells reside in different sites of injections and it appears that targeting the right cells through the i.v. route provides effective immunity against TB. The researchers showed that i.v. injection led to massive influx of protective T cells into the lungs that persisted even 6 months later. The i.v. vaccination by BCG resulted in formation of ‘memory’ T cells that remember the antigen (proteins in BCG similar to that of TB) and can launch a rapid and strong immune response on encountering the TB bacteria. Further understanding the mechanism of protection would certainly lead to an effective and much-desired TB vaccine. . . Image Creator:Dr_Microbe; Credit:Getty Images/iStockphoto Post: Sudesh Pawaria, PhD #mycobacteria #tuberculosis #vaccines #vaccination #research #science #currentsciencenews #thestemtimes #tb

A post shared by The STEM Times (@thestemtimes) on Jan 15, 2020 at 6:24am PST

A statistical report was also provided to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in which it was highlighted that tuberculosis vaccine might reduce the deaths caused by COVID 19. Escobar who is a well-known health worker explained that in his research he found that countries which were using BCG vaccine in order to fight tuberculosis were also showing fewer death rates caused by COVID 19 virus.

View this post on Instagram

After accounting for differences in factors that might affect vulnerability to the coronavirus – such as income, education, health services and age distribution – researchers found 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙝𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝘽𝙖𝙘𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚 𝘾𝙖𝙡𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚-𝙂𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙣 (𝘽𝘾𝙂) 𝙫𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙪𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙨 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙠 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝘾𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙙-19. The findings were reported on Thursday in the scientific journal 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀. Sources: The Independent CNN #Coronavirus #covid19 #coronavirusmortalityrate #Coronaviruslowermortality #bcg #bcgvaccine #bcgvaccineandcovid19

A post shared by B-Updated (@_b_updated) on Jul 12, 2020 at 5:24am PDT

It is debatable whether BCG will show 100 % results against COVID 19 but researchers are sure that BCG will provide temporary protection against the COVID 19. Countries must use BCG in a way to get the most desirable effects. Till then many other vaccines are underway and we hope that one of them might bring the best cure of COVID 19 virus.