Using real-life data to model the impact of increasing BCG vaccination coverage and scar prevalence on all-cause infant mortality

CONCLUSIONS: We confirmed previous observations: having a BCG scar markedly reduces infant MR. Increasing current global 2-month BCG vaccination coverage from 76% to 99%, and scar prevalence among vaccinated infants from 52% to 95% might reduce global infant mortality by >200,000 deaths/year. Thus, optimising BCG vaccination programmes to focus on increasing early BCG vaccination coverage and the overall scar prevalence would have major public health benefits.PMID:37479121 | DOI:10.1016/j.annepidem.2023.07.007

Source: Annals of Epidemiology - July 21, 2023 Category: Epidemiology Authors: Sarah W Stougaard Christine S Benn Peter Aaby Sebastian Nielsen Frederik Schaltz-Buchholzer Source Type: research