BCG VACCINATION STATUS AND EARLY OUTCOME OF COVID 19 : AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Hypothesis regarding the protective effect of BCG vaccine on Covid 19 has been proposed since the start of the SARS CoV2 pandemic. BCG vaccination seems to have non- specic benecial effects against other viral infections like RSV, HSV2, Yellow fever and Inuenza. The aim was to nd out signicant association between childhood BCG vaccination and the outcome of COVID 19 in a sample of adult patients who were admitted during the peak of the infection in India. METHODS: We enrolled 370 adult patients by complete enumeration method, admitted in our hospital in July 2020. We looked for the presence of BCG scar and studied the clinical prole of every patient. All of them were followed up till discharge or death and their outcomes were categorised as favourable or unfavourable. The clinical data and the signicance of the presence of scar on the outcome was analysed. RESULTS: 87% patients had a favourable outcome.25% patients had comorbidities like Hypertension, Diabetes Mellitus, Chronic lung disease and Chronic kidney disease. BCG scar was present in 73% of all patients. 75.78% of the patients who had favourable outcome had evidence of the vaccination as compared to the 24.22% without the scar (p value=0.001). This result was however not seen in patients with hypertension and diabetes mellitus suggesting that they could be confounding variables in the study and independent risk factors of poorer outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Adults vaccinated with BCG in childhood seem to have better progression and outcome of Covid 19. Prospective clinical trials would help conrm these results.