A Comparative Study of Japanese and British BCG Vaccine Strains in Newborn Infants

Abstract

A prospective study on the British and Japanese BCG vaccines in newborn infants was carried out in which 317 and 285 infants were randomly allocated and vaccinated with the British and Japanese BCG vaccines, respectively. Four follow-up examinations were carried out with an average of 98% of the study cohort attending all sessions.

About half the infants did not produce any visible response at the end of the first week. All, by the end of the third month, had characteristic BCG scars with an average diameter of 4.6 mm. A Mantoux test was carried out at six months. A mean skin induration of 7.2 mm (SD 5.3 mm) was recorded. Significantly higher proportions of infants given Japanese BCG were found to be tuberculin convertors (74.7%) when compared to those given British BCG (51.4%). Breast-feeding practices and the mothers' tuberculin status did not influence markedly their infants response to tuberculin.

Keywords

BCG vaccination Japanese BCG Newborn infants British BCG

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