Interpreting the Results of Trials of BCG Vaccination for Protection Against COVID-19.
review · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37558650.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1093/infdis/jiad316 and PMC identifier 10640778.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
BCG vaccination has beneficial off-target ("nonspecific") effects on nonmycobacterial infections. On this premise, trials set out to investigate whether BCG provides off-target protection against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A literature search identified 11 randomized "BCG COVID-19" trials, with conflicting results. These trials and the differences in their study design are discussed using the PICOT (participants, intervention, control, outcome, and timing) framework to highlight the factors that likely explain their inconsistent findings. These include participant age, sex and comorbid conditions, BCG vaccination strain and dose, outcome measure and duration of follow-up. Understanding how to control these factors to best exploit BCG's off-target effects will be important in designing future trials and intervention strategies.
Medical subject headings
- COVID-19