ReviewPLoS pathogens2016
Tuberculosis in Newborns: The Lessons of the "Lübeck Disaster" (1929-1933).
Review in PLoS pathogens, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 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.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Analysis of cellular and soluble profiles in QuantiFERON nonconverters, converters, and reverters in the Gambia.Immunity, inflammation and disease · 2019Trial
- Role of the PTPN22 C1858T (R263Q) variant in tuberculosis susceptibility: genetic and functional evidence from a South Asian cohort.BMC medical genomics · 2026Article
- The host immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis determining protection or disease progression.Nature immunology · 2026Review
- Sex as a Biological Variable in Tuberculosis Pathogenesis.Immunological reviews · 2026Review
- Genetic Susceptibility to Tuberculosis and the Utility of Polygenic Scores in Population Stratification.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Conducting Drug Treatment Trials in Children: Opportunities and Challenges.Pharmaceutical medicine · 2024Review
- Mucosal BCG delivery provides a spectrum of protection from differentFrontiers in tuberculosis · 2024Article
- Vaccines and Dementia: Part I. Non-Specific Immune Boosting with BCG: History, Ligands, and Receptors.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2024Review
- The immunogenetics of tuberculosis (TB) susceptibility.Immunogenetics · 2023Review
- Fulminant pulmonary tuberculosis in a previously healthy young woman from the Marshall Islands: Potential risk factors.Journal of clinical tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases · 2023Review
- Article
- TheAccess microbiology · 2023Article
- A novel therapeutic vaccine targeting the soluble TNFα receptor II to limit the progression of cardiovascular disease: AtheroVax™.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2023Review
- Recent advance in the development of tuberculosis vaccines in clinical trials and virus-like particle-based vaccine candidates.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- Sex and Gender Differences in Tuberculosis Pathogenesis and Treatment Outcomes.Current topics in microbiology and immunology · 2023Review
- Research progress on genetic control of host susceptibility to tuberculosis.Zhejiang da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Zhejiang University. Medical sciences · 2022Review
- Modular nanoarray vaccine for SARS-CoV-2.Nanomedicine : nanotechnology, biology, and medicine · 2022Article
- BCG Vaccine-The Road Not Taken.Microorganisms · 2022Review
- Sex Differences in Active Pulmonary Tuberculosis Outcomes in Mali, West Africa.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In an accident later known as the Lübeck disaster, 251 neonates were orally given three doses of the new Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) antituberculosis (TB) vaccine contaminated with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. A total of 173 infants developed clinical or radiological signs of TB but survived the infection, while 72 died from TB. While some blamed the accident on BCG itself by postulating reversion to full virulence, such a possibility was conclusively disproven. Rather, by combining clinical, microbiological, and epidemiological data, the chief public health investigator Dr. A. Moegling concluded that the BCG vaccine had been contaminated with variable amounts of fully virulent M. tuberculosis. Here, we summarize the conclusions drawn by Moegling and point out three lessons that can be learned. First, while mortality was high (approximately 29%), the majority of neonates inoculated with M. tuberculosis eventually overcame TB disease. This shows the high constitutional resistance of humans to the bacillus. Second, four semiquantitative levels of contamination were deduced by Moegling from the available data. While at low levels of M. tuberculosis there was a large spread of clinical phenotypes reflecting a good degree of innate resistance to TB, at the highest dose, the majority of neonates were highly susceptible to TB. This shows the dominating role of dose for innate resistance to TB. Third, two infants inoculated with the lowest dose nevertheless died of TB, and their median time from inoculation to death was substantially shorter than for those who died after inoculation with higher doses. This suggests that infants who developed disease after low dose inoculation are those who are most susceptible to the disease. We discuss some implications of these lessons for current study of genetic susceptibility to TB.
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