ReviewVaccines2023
Non-Specific Effects of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
Review in Vaccines, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Immune mechanisms mediating the heterologous effects of BCG vaccination: a systematic review.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Pooled it
- Impact of vaccine platform and BCG vaccination on antibody responses to COVID-19 vaccination.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Trial
- Bacillus Calmette-Guérin Vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 Infection among Healthcare Workers: A Case-Control Study in Cape Verde.Portuguese journal of public health · 2026Article
- Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) Vaccination and the Immune-Brain Axis: Implications for Neuroprotection and Neurodegenerative Disease.Vaccines · 2026Review
- Beyond the Usual Suspects: Emerging Associations Between Epstein-Barr Virus Infection/Infectious Mononucleosis and Cancers.Reviews in medical virology · 2026Review
- Screening and in silico evaluation of candidate late-stage antigens for incorporation into multi-stage and post-exposure vaccines against tuberculosis.NPJ vaccines · 2026Review
- Enhancing tuberculosis vaccine efficacy with a heterologous mRNA-ChAdOx1 prime-pull strategy targeting lung-resident memory T cells.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Immunisation status and clinical outcomes in children admitted to a Paediatric emergency unit in Ghana: a prospective cohort study.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
- Neonatal and infant mortality after maternal influenza and pertussis vaccination: Probabilistically linked cohort study.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2025Article
- The impact of interferon-γ pathway on trained immunity induction by vaccination with Bacille Calmette-Guérin.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Maladaptive trained immunity in viral infections.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2025Review
- Article
- Beyond Tuberculosis: The Surprising Immunological Benefits of the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) Vaccine in Infectious, Auto-Immune, and Inflammatory Diseases.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Article
- Scientometric analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis revaccination: Dynamics, impact and analysis of collaborative networks.Lung India : official organ of Indian Chest Society · 2025Article
- Early transcriptomic response of innate immune cells to subcutaneous BCG vaccination of mice.BMC research notes · 2024Article
- Article
- Evidence of innate training in bovine γδ T cells following subcutaneous BCG administration.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- The safety of BCG revaccination in the context of COVID-19.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2023Article
- BCG vaccination policy, natural boosting and pediatric brain and CNS tumor incidences.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Article
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 at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundVaccines induce antigen-specific immunity, which provides long-lived protection from the target pathogen. Trials from areas with high incidence rates for infectious diseases indicated that the tuberculosis vaccine Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) induces in addition non-specific immunity against various pathogens and thereby reduces overall mortality more than would have been expected by just protecting from tuberculosis. Although recent trials produced conflicting results, it was suggested that BCG might protect from non-tuberculosis respiratory infections and could be used to bridge the time until a specific vaccine against novel respiratory diseases like COVID-19 is available.
methodsWe performed a systematic search for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published between 2011 and December 9
resultsOur search identified 16 RCTs including 34,197 participants. Vaccination with BCG caused an estimated 44% decrease in risk for respiratory infections (hazard ratio (HR) 0.56, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.39-0.82) with substantial heterogeneity between trials (I
conclusionsAccording to these results, depending on the setting, vaccination with BCG provides time-limited partial protection against non-tuberculosis respiratory infections and may reduce mortality. These findings underline BCG's potential (1) in pandemic preparedness against novel pathogens especially in developing countries with established BCG vaccination programs but limited access to specific vaccines; (2) in reducing microbial infections, antimicrobial prescriptions and thus the development of antimicrobial resistance. There is a need for additional RCTs to clarify the circumstances under which BCG's non-specific protective effects are mediated.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.