One of those emerging questions about this coronavirus that scientists have been attempting to understand is the reason developing countries are showing markedly lower rates of mortality in COVID-19 cases than anticipated.

Research by assistant-professor Luis Escobar at this College of Natural Resources and Environment and 2 coworkers at the National Institutes of Health shows that Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), a tuberculosis vaccine routinely given to children in countries with high rates of tuberculosis infection, might play a substantial part in simplifying mortality rates in COVID-19. Their findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"In our original research, we found that countries with high levels of BCG vaccinations had lower levels of mortality," clarified Escobar, a faculty member in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation and a affiliate of the International Change Center placed from the Fralin Life Sciences Institute. "However, all states are different: Guatemala has a younger population compared to, say, Italy, so that we had to make alterations to this data to adapt those gaps "

Escobar, working with NIH researchers Alvaro Molina-Cruz and Carolina Barillas-Mury, collected coronavirus mortality data from all over the world. From that data, the team assessed for factors, such as income, access to education and health services, population size and densities, and age distribution. During each one the factors, a correlation held revealing that countries with high degrees of BCG vaccinations had lower peak mortality rates from COVID-19.

1 sample which stood out was Germany, which had different embryo plans prior to this nation's unification in 1990. While West Germany provided BCG vaccines to infants from 1961 to 1998, East Germany started their BCG vaccinations per decade earlier in the day, but ceased in 1975. Which means that older Germans -- the population most at risk from COVID-19 -- from the country's eastern nations would have more security from the existing pandemic than their peers in western Western countries. Recent statistics shows this to be true: western German countries have undergone mortality rates that are 2.9 times greater compared to people in eastern Germany.

"The intent of using the BCG method to protect from severe COVID-19 would be to excite a broad, inherent, rapid-response immunity," said Escobar, who noted that the BCG vaccines have been already shown to present comprehensive cross-protections for a number of viral respiratory illnesses in addition to tuberculosis.

Escobar worries that the team's findings are preliminary, and further research is required to support their results and determine what the upcoming steps should be for research workers. The World Health Organization noted that there's no current evidence that the BCG vaccine can protect people from COVID-19 infections, also said that it does not currently recommend BCG vaccinations to preventing COVID-19.

<span style="color: #ff6600;"><a style="color: #ff6600;" href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/07/07/2008410117">"We are not trying to notify coverage for this particular paper," Escobar said. "That is, as an alternative, a call for more research. We will need to see when we can reproduce this in experiments also, potentially, in clinical trials. In addition, we will need to get back to the data once we get more details, therefore we can reevaluate our understanding of the coronavirus pandemic"</a></span>

Barillas-Mury, a primary researcher that specializes at mosquito-borne disease vectors, reported that demonstrating a connection between BCG vaccines and COVID-19 case severity could lead to attempts to stockpile doses of the BCG vaccine, placing countries with high tuberculosis rates at risk.

"If the BCG vaccine is protective, production would need to increase to match the sudden spike in vaccine requirement to be able to prevent a delay in supply to countries that very much desire it to fight tuberculosis," she said.

While a direct correlation between BCG vaccinations and a decrease in coronavirus mortalities still needs to be known more fully, researchers hold expect that the BCG vaccine might find a way to supply at least short-term protections against severe COVID-19, especially for frontline health workers or high-risk patients. And, in case BCG does provide short term security, you will find longer term considerations about how countries could best utilize BCG vaccines to reduce mortality levels for future viral outbreaks that target the human reproductive system.

<strong>Story Source:</strong>

<span style="color: #ff6600;"><a style="color: #ff6600;" href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/07/07/2008410117">Materials</a> </span>provided by Virginia Tech. Original written by David Fleming. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

<strong>Journal Reference:</strong>

Luis E. Escobar, Alvaro Molina-Cruz, Carolina Barillas-Mury. BCG vaccine protection from severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a style="color: #ff6600;" href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/07/07/2008410117">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 9, 2020; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2008410117</a></span>