ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2015
Effectiveness of routine BCG vaccination on buruli ulcer disease: a case-control study in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Togo.
Article in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 70 citations in OpenAlex.
- Individual and clinical variables associated with the risk of Buruli ulcer acquisition: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2020Pooled it
- Trial
- Risk factors for Buruli ulcer disease in Ghana: A matched case-control study in four selected endemic districts of Eastern and Oti Regions.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Article
- Improved protocols for isolation of Mycobacterium ulcerans from clinical samples.BMC microbiology · 2025Article
- Vaccines in Dermatology-Present and Future: A Review.Vaccines · 2025Review
- Article
- Comprehensive Case-Control Study of Protective and Risk Factors for Buruli Ulcer, Southeastern Australia.Emerging infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Immune epitopes identification and designing of a multi-epitope vaccine against bovine leukemia virus: a molecular dynamics and immune simulation approaches.Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII · 2022Article
- The impact of single-cell genomics on the field of mycobacterial infection.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Review
- Article
- Immunoinformatics and molecular modeling approach to design universal multi-epitope vaccine for SARS-CoV-2.Informatics in medicine unlocked · 2021Article
- The current understanding and potential therapeutic options to combat COVID-19.Life sciences · 2020Review
- BCG vaccination policy and preventive chloroquine usage: do they have an impact on COVID-19 pandemic?Cell death & disease · 2020Article
- The immunology of other mycobacteria: M. ulcerans, M. leprae.Seminars in immunopathology · 2020Review
- Article
- Providing insight into the incubation period of Mycobacterium ulcerans disease: two case reports.Journal of medical case reports · 2019Article
- Confirmed Case of Buruli Ulcer, Senegal, 2018.Emerging infectious diseases · 2019Article
- Article
- Molecular detection of Mycobacterium ulcerans in the environment and its relationship with Buruli ulcer occurrence in Zio and Yoto districts of maritime region in Togo.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2018Article
- Risk factors for Mycobacterium ulcerans infection (Buruli Ulcer) in Togo ─ a case-control study in Zio and Yoto districts of the maritime region.BMC infectious diseases · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
24 authors at 7 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe only available vaccine that could be potentially beneficial against mycobacterial diseases contains live attenuated bovine tuberculosis bacillus (Mycobacterium bovis) also called Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG). Even though the BCG vaccine is still widely used, results on its effectiveness in preventing mycobacterial diseases are partially contradictory, especially regarding Buruli Ulcer Disease (BUD). The aim of this case-control study is to evaluate the possible protective effect of BCG vaccination on BUD. METHODOLOGY: The present study was performed in three different countries and sites where BUD is endemic: in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, and Togo from 2010 through 2013. The large study population was comprised of 401 cases with laboratory confirmed BUD and 826 controls, mostly family members or neighbors. PRINCIPAL
findingsAfter stratification by the three countries, two sexes and four age groups, no significant correlation was found between the presence of BCG scar and BUD status of individuals. Multivariate analysis has shown that the independent variables country (p = 0.31), sex (p = 0.24), age (p = 0.96), and presence of a BCG scar (p = 0.07) did not significantly influence the development of BUD category I or category II/III. Furthermore, the status of BCG vaccination was also not significantly related to duration of BUD or time to healing of lesions.
conclusionsIn our study, we did not observe significant evidence of a protective effect of routine BCG vaccination on the risk of developing either BUD or severe forms of BUD. Since accurate data on BCG strains used in these three countries were not available, no final conclusion can be drawn on the effectiveness of BCG strain in protecting against BUD. As has been suggested for tuberculosis and leprosy, well-designed prospective studies on different existing BCG vaccine strains are needed also for BUD.
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