90’s kids, it turns out that the pain we had to go through when we were in primary six might have paid off after all.
According to a new study, countries with BCG vaccination like Singapore have 6 times lower death rate for Covid-19.
Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)
This vaccination was invented about 100 years ago and is given to fight off Tuberculosis (TB), a bacterial infection.
Other than TB, it was found that the shot also helps to boost the immune system as well to fight off other infections.
One of the bonus effects is enhanced protection against respiratory diseases and is recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Singapore has implemented the BCG jab as part of its national immunisation efforts since the 1950s.
But What If I Didn’t Get My BCG Jab When I Was In Primary Six?
In 2001, Singapore stopped giving BCG jabs to primary six students.
But don’t worry because that’s the second immunisation jab.
The first BCG jab is given when you were fresh from the womb.
And if you’re worried about how long the immunisation will last, a test found that a BCG jab during childhood can protect an individual until he is sixty years old against TB.
Okay, that’s enough background information, let’s move on:
The Study
A study recently published on MedRIVX
Researchers pooled together the best possible available data on mortality rate for 50 countries reporting the highest cases.
Which, by the way, Singapore is not included because according to the John Hopkins real-time map, we’re in position 52.
Then, they removed time bias by counting only from the day where the countries reported their 100th Covid-19 cases.
The data was then used to compare against the BCG vaccination programmes within the countries.
The Findings
They managed to uncover two trends during the research.
The first finding: they found that countries with the BCG immunisation jab have a death rate six times lower than countries that didn’t have them.
And the second: Wealthier nations have a higher average death rate.
COVID-19 mortality per one million for low-middle-income, upper-middle-income and high-income countries were 0.4, 0.65 and 5.5, respectively
You would’ve thought that with better healthcare and equipment, wealthier nations would have lesser deaths.
However, they pointed out that there are various other factors at play here too.
Covid-19 is shown to be a greater danger to people above sixty-five years old, and they pointed out, lower-income countries would have a lesser proportion to them as compared to their richer counterparts.
Several Countries Have Already Started Trial For BCG Vaccination
Previously, several countries have started doing human trials on BCG.
A group of Australian researchers announced that fast-tracking large-scale human testing to see if a vaccine used for decades to prevent tuberculosis can protect health workers from Covid-19.
4,000 healthcare workers were given the vaccination and studied to see if it provides better protection against Covid-19.
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Similar trials are also being conducted in other countries, like the Netherlands, The United Kingdom and Germany.
They’re all hoping that with BCG, we can buy enough time until the vaccination for Covid-19 is ready.
But while they’re doing all the brainy stuff, we can all do goody things as well.
Things like:
- maintaining safe distancing
- not going out to party
- and washing your hands frequently with soap
can help keep the infectious virus at bay too.
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You can do your part as a responsible citizen through helping out in contact tracing by downloading the TraceTogether app.
In the meantime, keep yourself updated by bookmarking MOH’s website here and registering for the Gov.sg’s WhatsApp service here.
