Around 800 medical staff in Vietnam will participate in a Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine used against tuberculosis in order to help find whether the vaccine can be useful in Covid-19 prevention.
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Around 800 medical staff in Vietnam will participate in a Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine used against tuberculosis in order to help find whether the vaccine can be useful in Covid-19 prevention.
The move followed research by a group of the US and Irish experts which showed that countries that have a widespread BCG vaccination programme had almost six times lower cases than nations that don’t use it.
The Ministry of Health has assigned the Central Lung Hospital to co-operate with some other agencies to pilot the BCG vaccination for medical staff that have had direct contact with Covid-19 patients.
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Viet Nhung, director of the Central Lung Hospital, said that at least six countries have piloted this vaccine for medical staff and the elderly. His hospital is working out the plan for the implementation in the co-ordination with French experts.
Roughly 800 medical staff at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi and the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases and some others will be selected for the vaccination.
The Vietnamese research group will work to find who among the country’s 268 Covid-19 patients have been provided with BCG vaccination.
Vietnam has used the BCG vaccination for over 30 years. The vaccine is given once to children below one month.
(Source: VNN)
