Tuberculosis: TB Vaccine Too Dangerous for Babies With AIDS Virus, Study Says

NY Tiimes ^ | July 7, 2009 | DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

[neverdem]

Global Update

The vaccine against tuberculosis that is routinely given to 75 percent of the world’s infants is too risky to give to those born infected with the AIDS virus, says a new study published by the World Health Organization. It recommended that vaccination be delayed until babies can be tested.

The Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine, known as BCG, protects children well against deadly tuberculous meningitis, though it does less well against the lung form. It has been in use since 1921, and children in many countries — though not the United States, which never adopted it — bear its characteristic round scar.

But because it is a live vaccine, a weakened strain of bovine tuberculosis, it can cause its own problem — “disseminated BCG disease,” a type of bacterial infection that can rage through the body. It is fatal in more than 70 percent of cases.

In countries like South Africa, where both tuberculosis and mother-to-child transmission of the AIDS virus is common, the vaccine gives infected children almost no protection against tuberculosis and instead may kill them with BCG disease, the authors found...

[neverdem]

It took them this long to find that?

[KarinG1]

They must not have had that vaccine back when I was 75% born. I was birthed pre-AIDS and once contracted TB. It can be easily cured and causes no lung damage if caught early.

[djf]

I’m wondering what’s gonna happen when some guy in Zambia or whatever turns over a shovelfull of dirt and finds out about 96 hours later that smallpox still exists in the wild...

Hey, I’m a geezer, I got the scar, better than nothing I guess but people under 40 or so...