BCG vaccine-2

•The vaccine provokes the body to develop antibodies to attack TB bacteria thus creating
an adaptive immune response like other vaccines.

•However, unlike other vaccines, the BCG vaccine may also boost the innate immune system i.e. first line defence that keep a variety of pathogens from entering the body or from establishing an infection.

•The efficiency rate of the vaccine is around 60 per cent and the results also vary between countries.

Globally, the practice is to administer it to children below one year of age as most children acquire natural clinical/ sub-clinical tuberculosis infection by the age of one year. This too protects against severe forms of childhood tuberculosis e.g. TB meningitis and military disease.