Can Pakistan's TB Vaccination Program Help Reduce Impact of Coronavirus?

Can Pakistan's 88% BCG vaccination rate against tuberculosis (TB) help reduce the impact of coronavirus? A New York Institute of Technology study using data from 178 countries has concluded that both the incidence and mortality of COVID-19  are significantly lower in countries with BCG vaccination programs against TB. Will this study help prove Dawn News' alarming forecast of over 2 million confirmed cases by June 1 and 20 million actual infections wrong? 

Pakistan's Dawn News Coronavirus Forecast

The study has found that the coronavirus has hit US and Italy which do not have universal BCG vaccination programs much harder than countries like Japan which do.  Scientists say it will take several months to get results from ongoing trials testing the BCG vaccine against COVID-19.

TB Vaccine May Lower Death Rates From COVID-19. Source: NYIT Colleg...

Scientists have speculated that BCG vaccine may boost the innate immune system not just against TB but also against a variety of other pathogens from invading the body or from establishing an infection. Here are some of the key findings of the study summarized below:

1. Countries that do not have a BCG vaccination policy against TB have seen 10X greater incidence and deaths from Covid-19 than the countries that do, according to a study of  data from 178 countries by New York Institute of Technology researchers.

2. BCG, or Bacillus Calmette-Guérin, is a vaccine for tuberculosis (TB). It is administered at birth in many developing countries that have historically suffered from the disease, such as India and Pakistan. Most of the developed nations, including US, Italy and the Netherlands do not have universal TB vaccination programs. Japan is among the few developed OECD nations that still do. The East Asian nation had some of the earlier cases, but the mortality is low despite not having adopted some the more stringent social distancing rules.

3. The study looked at Covid-19 instances and mortality for 15 days between March 9 and 24 in 178 countries and concluded that incidence of Covid-19 was 38.4 per million in countries with BCG vaccination compared to 358.4 per million in the absence of such a program.

4. The death rate was 4.28 per million in countries with BCG programs compared to 40 per million in countries without such a program. Out of the 178 countries studied, 21 had no vaccination program, while the status was unclear in 26 countries. The latter group was treated as not having a policy for the purpose of this study.

Scientists do not have data yet on the effect of BCG vaccination on coronaviruses in general or SARS-CoV-2 in particular, according to Reuters. There are also many BCG vaccines, with different capacities to protect against various TB strains. Scientists need to determine which BCG vaccines might have the best ability to boost the innate immune system to fight COVID-19.  Scientists say it will take several months to get results from ongoing trials testing the BCG vaccine against COVID-19.

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Comment by Riaz Haq on April 12, 2020 at 3:57pm

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan has risen to 5,038 as of 10 April. Increase of 250 new cases in the last 24 hours.
The most affected province due to COVID-19 virus is Punjab 2,425, followed by Sindh 1,318.
The National Disaster Management Authority is dispatching additional Personal Protection Equipment for doctors and health workers of 202 hospitals of Sindh.

https://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/pakistan-covid-19-situation-u...

More than 1.5 million families will get severely affected if the lockdown continues for two months in Balochistan.
The public sector hospitals of the Islamabad city are again considering extending the closure of Outdoor Patient Departments for one month due to possible high risk of novel coronavirus spread from the facilities, The Nation learnt on Saturday.
The district administration of Rawalpindi has established a 120-bed quarantine facility at Shahbaz Sharif Sports Complex located on Sixth Road.
Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan on Saturday said the government would bring back 4,000 Pakistanis stranded across the world following Covid-19outbreak through special flights.
Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal said Pakistan has the testing facility available for 75-days to diagnose Coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic disease.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday said the incentives announced by the central bank for the business community would prevent massive unemployment in the county because of the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic as the health minister warned against easing restrictions at the current stage of the outbreak.

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 25, 2020 at 10:51am

#MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) & #BCG could serve as a preventive measure against the worst effects of #coronavirus (#COVID19 ). Live attenuated #vaccines provide nonspecific protection against lethal infections unrelated to the target pathogen. #Pakistan. https://mbio.asm.org/content/11/3/e00907-20

Paul L. Fidel Jr., Mairi C. Noverr
Michael S. Gilmore, Editor

We propose the concept that administration of an unrelated live attenuated vaccine, such as MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), could serve as a preventive measure against the worst sequelae of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). There is mounting evidence that live attenuated vaccines provide nonspecific protection against lethal infections unrelated to the target pathogen of the vaccine by inducing “trained” nonspecific innate immune cells for improved host responses against subsequent infections. Mortality in COVID-19 cases is strongly associated with progressive lung inflammation and eventual sepsis. Vaccination with MMR in immunocompetent individuals has no contraindications and may be especially effective for health care workers who can easily be exposed to COVID-19. Following the lead of other countries conducting clinical trials with the live attenuated Mycobacterium bovis BCG (BCG) vaccine under a similar concept, a clinical trial with MMR in high-risk populations may provide a “low-risk–high-reward” preventive measure in saving lives during this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.

Comment by Riaz Haq on August 11, 2020 at 6:58pm

One More Reason to Wear a Mask: You’ll Get Less Sick From COVID-19

https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/07/418181/one-more-reason-wear-mask-...

As more and more states promote face masks as a way to control the spread of COVID-19, the top-line message has been: wear a mask to protect others. While it’s true that most face masks are more effective in preventing you from launching droplets into the air than breathing in already dispersed droplets – that doesn’t mean masks offer no protection to the wearer.

It’s likely that face masks, by blocking even some of the virus-carrying droplets you inhale, can reduce your risk of falling seriously ill from COVID-19, according to Monica Gandhi, MD, an infectious disease specialist at UC San Francisco.

“The more virus you get into your body, the more sick you are likely to get,” she said.

In the latest wave of infections in the U.S., the wider use of masks may be one factor for the lower death rates – along with more testing, younger patients and better treatments – said Gandhi. A greater proportion of these new cases have been mild or asymptomatic, though more data is needed to see if they track geographically with higher rates of mask-wearing.

Worldwide, epidemiological patterns seem to provide a clue. In countries where mask wearing was already commonplace, such as Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, and Singapore, and in countries where mask wearing was quickly embraced, such as the Czech Republic, rates of severe illness and death have remained comparatively low.

These epidemiological observations are among the evidence that Gandhi and colleagues cite in a paper in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, in which they propose that masks can lead to milder or asymptomatic infections by cutting down on the dose of virus people take in.

“Masks can prevent many infections altogether, as was seen in health care workers when we moved to universal masking. We’re also saying that masks, which filter out a majority of viral particles, can lead to a less severe infection if you do get one,” said Gandhi. “If you get infected, but have no symptoms – that’s the best way you can ever get a virus.”

The idea that viral dose, also known as viral inoculum, determines the degree of illness is not new, said Gandhi. Descriptions of a dose-mortality curve – how much of a virus is needed to cause death in an animal – were first published in 1938. And after all, the earliest vaccines, which were documented in 16th century China, involved exposing someone to a small amount of smallpox virus to induce mild illness and subsequent immunity.

A small number viral particles is more likely to be quelled by the immune system before they can proliferate, said Gandhi.

Researchers have studied dose dependency experimentally with other viral infections, like the flu. In a study with healthy volunteers, those who received a higher dose of the influenza A virus developed more severe symptoms.

Because the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is potentially lethal, experiments on masking and disease severity have been necessarily limited to animals. In a hamster study, a surgical mask partition between the cages of infected and uninfected hamsters significantly cut COVID-19 transmission. Fewer hamsters caught the virus and those that did showed milder symptoms.

Tale of Two Cruise Ships
Gandhi believes the viral inoculum theory helps explain an unusual feature of the new coronavirus – what Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, has called its “protean” manifestations.

Early in the year, as COVID-19 spread around the world, infectious disease experts began to notice this strange aspect of the new virus – the extreme variation in its symptoms and severity. Some who tested positive didn’t seem sick at all, some had symptoms of a cold, others lost their sense of taste or developed delirium, and still others suffered severe pneumonia that led to death.

Comment by Riaz Haq on August 11, 2020 at 6:59pm

Immune system is like a muscle... you lose it you don’t use it

Vaccines for everything from influenza to measles provide partial protection against COVID-19, according to new Mayo Clinic research, suggesting that parents should get children up to date on shots before school this fall, and senior citizens should schedule their vaccinations before the winter flu season.

People showed a 28% reduction in COVID-19 risk if they received the PCV13 pneumonia vaccine in the past year compared with those who didn’t, and a 43% reduction if they received the polio vaccine before travels to at-risk locations, the study showed.


While the population-based study has limitations and was posted online Tuesday without peer review, Mayo officials said there is little harm in using the results to encourage people to seek shots that are recommended anyway.

“Make sure you get your scheduled vaccines,” said Dr. Andrew Badley, an author of the study and a leader of Mayo’s COVID research task force. “Not doing so is not doing everything you can to reduce your risks.”


The recommendation comes as Minnesota leaders wrestle with the dilemma of wanting to reopen K-12 schools this fall while facing a rising rate of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

Gov. Tim Walz will unveil his school reopening plan Thursday, but he made reference during a press briefing Wednesday to a “decision matrix” that will guide districts on whether to reopen with live classrooms, online sessions or a mix. The guidance is expected to give schools discretion, depending on COVID-19 levels in their communities.

“Our guiding principles are to keep our children and our staff in the buildings safe,” Walz said. “Our second goal right behind that is to get our children back in the schools, especially our littlest learners, if at all possible.”

The governor on Wednesday highlighted 4 million protective masks that are being distributed to help people comply with Minnesota’s new indoor mask mandate.

The Minnesota Department of Health on Wednesday reported nine COVID-19 deaths and 681 infections with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes the infectious disease. That brings the state’s totals to 1,589 deaths and 52,947 known infections.

The state reported 310 people hospitalized with COVID-19, and 143 of them needing intensive care. Those are both highs for the month of July.

Cases have been increasing for weeks, initially among teenagers and young adults but now among older, higher-risk individuals who are more likely to need hospital care, said Kris Ehresmann, state infectious disease director.


https://m.startribune.com/non-covid-vaccines-offer-some-covid-prote...

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