COVID-19 outbreak: What is BCG vaccine? How will it help in fight against Coronavirus

New Delhi, Apr 13: Several researchers are seen to be muddled to find new vaccines to fight the novel coronavirus. During this time, a vaccine that is more than a century years old has come to researchers' interests.

The Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine, which was initially developed to fight tuberculosis (TB), is being studied by the researchers in clinical trials around the world.

Though TB and COVID-19 are two different diseases, TB is caused by a type of bacteria while COVID-19 is caused by a virus. But, it is reportedly said that the BCG vaccine might help people in building immune response to things other than TB.

Speaking to a media organisation, Dr Denise Faustman, the director of immunobiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School said, "In clinical trial format, people started picking up positive benefit from getting the vaccine that had nothing to do with tuberculosis."

Dr Faustman has reportedly studied how the BCG vaccine affects people with Type 1 diabetes for many years. Also, she is interested in to know how its off-target effects change the immune system for people with autoimmune diseases such as Type 1 diabetes.

However, the exact mechanism of the BCG vaccine on coronavirus is not clear and it is believed that the vaccine can cause a nonspecific boost to the immune response.

Currently, there are no vaccine or treatments that are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat the novel coronavirus.

Also, Australia and the Netherlands are seen conducting human clinical trials to evaluate the BCG vaccine's efficacy.