USA never used BCG

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

For the reason that none of the studies conducted showed benefit to USA residents, and would also have prevented accurately diagnosing people with active in infection, rather than supposed immunity.

This article is very interesting, as it's one of the many articles which lead to BCG NOT being used in USA. The left hand pdf Am J Public Health is 2 mb.

Am J Public Health. (http://javascript<b></b>:AL_get(this, 'jour', 'Am J Public Health.');) 1974 Mar;64(3):283-91.
Related Articles (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&DbFrom=pubmed&Cmd=Link&LinkName=pubmed_pubmed&LinkReadableName=Related%20Articles&IdsFromResult=4811772&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_RVAbstract), Links (http://javascript<b></b>:PopUpMenu2_Set(Menu4811772);)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/corehtml/query/egifs/http:--highwire.stanford.edu-icons-externalservices-pubmed-standard-ajph_full_free.gif (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/utils/fref.fcgi?PrId=3051&itool=Abstract-def&uid=4811772&db=pubmed&url=http://www.ajph.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=4811772) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/corehtml/query/egifs/http:--www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov-corehtml-pmc-pmcgifs-pubmed-pmc.gif (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/utils/fref.fcgi?PrId=3494&itool=Abstract-nondef&uid=4811772&db=pubmed&url=http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=4811772)
Evaluation of BCG vaccination among Puerto Rican children.

Comstock GW (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=%22Comstock%20GW%22%5BAuthor%5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_RVAbstract), Livesay VT (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=%22Livesay%20VT%22%5BAuthor%5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_RVAbstract), Woolpert SF (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=Search&Term=%22Woolpert%20SF%22%5BAuthor%5D&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_RVAbstract).

PMID: 4811772 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] PMCID: PMC1775430

The last paragraph is classic:


It seems much more likely that some of the world's BCG strains are virtually useless, some confer moderate protection, and some-perhaps only a few-are highly potent. Which is which cannot at present be told. Because BCG vaccination is the major method of tuberculosis control in all but a few highly developed nations, it is particularly tragic that the use of scarce resources to administer BCG must still be based on blind faith.

[cartersmom]

I think it's interesting that BCG was never used in the USA and yet we are all not dropping dead from TB.

[MinorityView]

I read a whole book about the history of disease in the U.S. Let me see if I can remember the title (digging through menopausal malfunctioning memory bank, getting a bit frantic) the Deadly Truth: a History of Disease in America by Gerald N. Grob. Anyway, he had a long discussion about tuberculosis starting on page 210. First, he points out that the numbers of cases are probably incorrect as other diseases were mistaken for TB. But it was a major cause of mortality. Towards the end of the nineteenth century mortality began to fall and by the start of WW II it was no longer a big threat.

But why it declined--no one is sure. Theoretically, improvement in living standards might have made a difference. But the disease also struck the wealthy and members of the middle classes, who weren't living in slums and had enough to eat.

Another theory was that isolation of the ill stopped the spread of the disease. This fits in the U.K. where isolation was effectively implemented, but not in the U.S., where the decline began before the hospitalization and isolation movement became effective.

Wade Hampton Frost, theorized that human beings were developing some degree of resistance to the disease (the weaker died or were unable to reproduce) and this lowered the level of transmission.

This is all I have time for right now.

But I'll add: I'm 58. When I was a child TB testing was regularly done in schools. I tested positive, but in such a way that it was clear that I wasn't ill. I was told that I'd been exposed but my body had isolated the bug and encased it and I now had immunity.

I've only had one or two TB tests as an adult and didn't test positive as far as I know.

Anyway, TB is a good example of how complex the interaction between human beings and disease can be.

[Nirvana]

The BCG vaccine is the first vaccine a newborn receives in India and Middle East as early as one week of being born. And yet the rate of TB in India is phenomenal!

[Spy]

Not just India. :D Quite a few countries that had had BCG flowing like a river with a few doses starting at birth (Russia does it on the 5th day) for 50+ years have the highest rates of TB, and a whole lot of countries that never touched it are OK TB-wise. This has been pointed out a multitude of times with the only answer - we got the cause-effect thing backwards :LMAO:They HAVE to use BCG BECAUSE TB is so high! :rolleyes:

[Nirvana]

Will this madness ever end?

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Not in the foreseeable future.

[MinorityView]

Cheery moment...at least we aren't bored...

back to our regularly scheduled gloom and doom!

[Cobluegirl]

I don't know a whole lot about this vaccine..but if they are giving it in countries where TB is high...are they infecting the population with it instead of preventing it?

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

some would argue that coblue :D

[Sidney]

Not just India. :D Quite a few countries that had had BCG flowing like a river with a few doses starting at birth (Russia does it on the 5th day) for 50+ years have the highest rates of TB, and a whole lot of countries that never touched it are OK TB-wise.

The BCG was very recently stopped in Finland after being used for tens of years because the disease is pretty much non existent now (despite being next door to Russia). No doubt it was concluded that the vaccine was the reason for the decline. I'd personally put it down to clean living conditions.

[Spy]

Oh have they stopped? I missed that bit. Good, it was rather ridiculous to use it in Finland. :rolleyes: