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/ Picture Alliance, BSIP
Cape Town: In search of a COVID-19 lung disease drug, South African scientists have started a trial of the BCG tuberculosis vaccine with 500 test subjects. “The clinical trial has started, we vaccinated the first participants this morning,” said Duncan McDonald of the medical research organization Task today. 250 people received a BCG injection and another 250 a placebo.
“Some observations suggest that BCG has an impact on the immune system that we do not yet fully understand, including that it strengthens the immune system against respiratory infections,” said Andreas Diacon, who leads the study at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town. Several studies have shown that children vaccinated with BCG are less likely to suffer from respiratory diseases.
That is why scientists in South Africa are now trying to find out if BCG is also effective against the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus: “If we could only reduce the symptoms of COVID-19 a little, this would increase the chances of survival for people. Either they wouldn’t even have to go to the hospital or they wouldn’t even get sick, ”Diacon said.
The Cape Town clinical trial is for nurses “because we believe they are the most exposed,” Diacon said. The study should be expanded to up to 3,000 health workers in Cape Town. Therefore, participants are observed for at least one year.
In South Africa, around 300,000 people contract tuberculosis each year, one of the highest infection rates in the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 63,000 people die of the disease annually in the country.
Similar clinical studies to those in South Africa are currently underway in the Netherlands, Australia and France to demonstrate the possible protective effects of BCG. Subjects in the Netherlands and Australia received the vaccine for the first time, as the tuberculosis vaccine is no longer carried out in these countries.
The BCG vaccine has also not been recommended in Germany by the Standing Committee on Vaccination of the Robert Koch Institute since 1998. © © afp / aerzteblatt.de
