Comparison of effectiveness of BCG vaccine in prevention of pulmonary tuberculosis in immunized and non-immunized paediatric patients

Background: ​Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial organism responsible for causing TB in various parts of the human body, but it mainly affects the lung parenchyma. TB is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality globally. In the year 2015, 10.4 million adults suffered from TB and 1800,000 died while 1000,000 paediatric population suffered from TB and 170,000 passed away due to this illness. Objective: ​To find an association between pulmonary tuberculosis and BCG vaccination in the paediatric population. Methodology:​ ​It was an observational case-control study. ​The study was carried out in the departments of Pulmonology of The Children's Hospital and the Institute of Child Health, Lahore. The duration​ of the study was six months. A total of 122 patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were enrolled in the study. BCG vaccination status was determined. Results: ​The mean age of the cases was 7.67±4.30 years that of controls was 7.79±4.13 years. Among cases, there were 32(52.2%) males and 29(47.5%) females while among controls there were 39(63.9%) males and 22(36.1%) females. In the cases group there were 27(44.3%) children with BCG Vaccination and 34(55.7%) without BCG vaccination on the other side among controls there were 33(54.1%) children with BCG vaccination and 28(45.9%) without BCG vaccination. There was no significant association between BCG vaccination and study groups (r=0.67, p-value=0.27). Conclusion: ​There was no association between pulmonary TB and BCG vaccination in the paediatric population.