Background: Literature suggests that the presence of the current Calmette Guerin (BCG) policy appears to mitigate COVID-19 disease burden but no information exists on the nature of the BCG strain and disease burden.

Objectives: To study the association between type of BCG strain, BCG coverage (%), and COVID-19 disease burden.

Methodology: An audit of global data on strains and disease burden was done. Country-specific data for COVID-19 cases and deaths, BCG-related data, and income level were obtained from the online databases, and the association was analyzed using linear regression.

Results: Data of 139 countries were studied and 117 (84%) had a current BCG policy. Data on BCG strains were available for 51 countries and 18/51 (35%) used the Danish strain. While the choice of strain did not impact COVID-19-related disease burden, the presence of a current BCG policy was significantly associated with lower COVID-19 mortality.

Conclusion: The presence of current BCG policy is associated with decreased COVID-19-related disease burden, but the type of strain used by a country in its vaccination program does not impact disease burden.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8729294PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/ijcm.IJCM_103_21DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

disease burden
20
bcg policy
16
presence current
12
current bcg
12
calmette guerin
8
global data
8
bcg
8
covid-19 disease
8
bcg strain
8
covid-19-related disease
8

Similar Publications

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a prevalent chronic inflammatory airway disease with high incidence and significant disease burden. R-loops, functional chromatin structure formed during transcription, are closely associated with inflammation due to its aberrant formation. However, the role of R-loop regulators (RLRs) in COPD remains unclear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Prevalence of Chronic Hand Eczema in adults: A cross-sectional survey of over 60,000 respondents in the general population in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Br J Dermatol

January 2025

Department of Occupational and Environmental Diseases, University Hospital of Centre of Paris, Hotel-Dieu Hospital, and Department of Dermatology, University Hospital of Centre of Paris, Cochin Hospital, AP-HP, Paris, France AP-HP, Paris, France.

Background: The lack of attention to Chronic Hand Eczema (CHE) and the lack of a specific International Classification of Diseases code for CHE may have limited the assessment of CHE prevalence. To date, prevalence estimates have primarily been derived from (partly small) single-country studies.

Objectives: To estimate the annual prevalence of self-reported physician-diagnosed CHE across socio-demographic characteristics among adults in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom (UK).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ferroptosis: A Targetable Vulnerability for Melanoma Treatment.

J Invest Dermatol

January 2025

Department of Dermatology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China; National Engineering Research Center of Personalized Diagnostic and Therapeutic Technology, Changsha, China; Furong Laboratory, Changsha, China; Hunan Key Laboratory of Skin Cancer and Psoriasis, Hunan Engineering Research Center of Skin Health and Disease, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China; National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Changsha, China. Electronic address:

Melanoma is a devastating form of skin cancer characterized by a high mutational burden, limited treatment success, and dismal prognosis. Although immunotherapy and targeted therapies have significantly revolutionized melanoma treatment, the majority of patients fail to achieve durable responses, highlighting the urgent need for novel therapeutic strategies. Ferroptosis, an iron-dependent form of regulated cell death driven by the overwhelming accumulation of lipid peroxides, has emerged as a promising therapeutic approach in preclinical melanoma models.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cardiac amyloidosis represents a unique disease process characterized by amyloid fibril deposition within the myocardial extracellular space. Advances in multimodality cardiac imaging enable accurate diagnosis and facilitate prompt initiation of disease-modifying therapies. Furthermore, rapid advances in multimodality imaging have enriched understanding of the underlying pathogenesis, enhanced prognostication, and resulted in the development of imaging-based markers that reflect the amyloid burden, which is of increasing importance when assessing the response to treatment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Effects of adjuvant hyperbaric oxygen therapy and real-time fluorescent imaging on deep sternal wound infection: a retrospective study.

J Wound Care

January 2025

Division of Plastic Surgery, Integrated Burn & Wound Care Center, Department of Surgery, Shuang-Ho Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan.

Objective: Deep sternal wound infection (DSWI) is a rare but devastating complication that is estimated to occur in 1-2% of patients after median sternotomy. Current standard of care (SoC) comprises antibiotics, debridement and negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT). Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) appears to be an effective adjuvant therapy for osteomyelitis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!