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Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, May 4
The Haffkine Institute will soon begin clinical trials of the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine as a treatment for Covid-19.
According to the Maharashtra government, the General of Drug Control of India has given permission for such trials to be conducted in the
state. “We will begin trials immediately on about 35 patients,” said Dr. Sanjay Mukherjee, Secretary, Department of Medical and Drug Education, Government of Maharashtra.
Initial trials will begin at BJ Medical College in Pune, according to the health department. While some of the participants in the
trials will be those with moderate Covid-19 symptoms, others will be those with severe symptoms.
According to sources here, it is the first time that the BCG vaccine used to inoculate newborns against tuberculosis is being
considered a treatment for the Covid-19 virus. Previously, researchers at the Haffkine Institute regarded it as a vaccine against the new coronavirus. Several front-line doctors in Maharashtra have already volunteered in a trial in which they have been inoculated with the BCG vaccine.
The Maharashtra government’s decision to consider the vaccine as a treatment for the virus comes after it showed encouraging results after it was administered to some patients, according to Dr. Mukherjee.
The BCG (Bacillus Calmette Guerin) vaccine is used to prevent meningitis. It was developed between 1908 and 1921 by the French.
bacteriologists Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin, who called the product Bacillus Calmette Guerin, or BCG.
The vaccine is considered relatively harmless, since it is even administered in newborns.
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