Abstract
There have been 760 million cases and 6.9 million recorded deaths worldwide due to COVID-19 infection since December 2019. The actual number is thought to be considerably higher (WHO) than documented worldwide. There was worldwide desperate search for ways to prevent the morbidities and mortalities associated with COVID-19 infection. In this context, BCG vaccination hypothesized to play both preventive as well as protective role against COVID-19 infection. All over the world many trials, ongoing or completed done with different results. According to South African trial conducted amongst 1000 healthcare workers, BCG revaccination stated to have no protective effect. On the other hand, trial in UK stated BCG effect to be dependent on ethnicity or race of infected individual.
Present study aim was to study, compare & analyse the proportion of BCG vaccinated among the COVID-19 patients. Severity of infection, disease progression, mortality, morbidity and duration of recovery or discharge were studied in both prospective & retrospective direction in 549 participants 1keeping in view their BCG vaccination status. The study is an effort to substantiate or refute claims of various studies published regarding BCG vaccination & COVID-19 infections.
Amongst the participants, 27.5% were found to be BCG vaccinated, while 72.5 % were unvaccinated. Majority of patients (50.4%) were with mild COVID-19 infection. The patients affected were mostly of 26-30 years (26.7%) of age. Patients of 36-40 years (2.1%) were from severe disease category.
An association was found between age group (‘p’ value < 0.05) and between genders (‘p’ value < 0.05) and BCG vaccination status. There were no association between gender and severity of COVID-19 infection. Amongst the patients with severe disease, 70% were not vaccinated for BCG. There was an association between the severity of the disease and the BCG vaccination status (‘p’ value<0.05). Respiratory symptoms were common amongst almost all the participants (95.8%). Amongst patients who were BCG vaccinated, none were on invasive ventilation therapy yet amongst the non-BCG vaccinated patients, 2.76% were on invasive ventilation. There was a significant association between BCG status and complications (‘p’ value < 0.05). The association between inflammatory markers with BCG status was also found to be significant (‘p’ value < 0.05).