BCG Vaccine Induces Immunity and Protects Against Covid-19?
Introduction: The Current Respiratory tract disease Pandemic, COVID-19, is a new viral pathogen strain of the Coronavirus family called as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARSCoV- 2). The main complication of the disease includes Severe Pneumonia and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). The Bacillus – Calmette–Guerin (BCG) is a live attenuated vaccine developed against Tuberculosis (TB) at the beginning of the 20th century at the Institute Pasteur in Paris. BCG vaccination, in general, is reported to decrease human susceptibility to respiratory tract infections (O’Neill & Netea, 2020) and also reduces infant mortality. This protective effect of BCG appears to be common against any unrelated infectious agents and respiratory tract infections. Thus we aimed to study on whether BCG vaccine induces immunity and protects against the new respiratory infectious disease, COVID-19.
