A new research study has discovered that the BCG vaccine used to protect children from tuberculosis (TB) can protect people from coronavirus too.

Medical Superintendent (MS) of COVID-19 Hospital Dr. Renu Agarwal, from Uttar Pradeshs Noida has stated that the BCG vaccine can rapidly strengthen the bodys immunity. The results of the research study are being published in Indian Journal of Applied Research.

In the 1st stage of the study, almost 30 medical and paramedical staff, who were doing COVID duty in Noida District Hospital were administered BCG in April. Till date none of them have become positive as compared to a control group of 50 people and out of them, 8 people became positive for COVID-19.

As per the article that was published in the journal, a group of 80 workers were constituted on 1st May by Dr Renu Aggarwal. In this group, 30 participants were vaccinated with BCG and 50 participants were asked to work at COVID-19 hospital without being vaccinated.

All the employees were tested for COVID-19 every 15th day using RT-PCR test. A month later, amongst the 50 participants who were not vaccinated, 16 employees were found to be infected with coronavirus. Later, a second group of 130 employees was instituted on 24th August and 50 participants were vaccinated. All the 50 medical and paramedical staff were on COVID-19 duties and none of them are tested positive so far. A control group of 80 employees were also included and out of them 20 employees were tested positive. Dr Agarwal said that she herself got vaccinated and has continued to be free from coronavirus till now.

Many of the staff workers who were being vaccinated with BCG had diabetes, hypertension and other diseases. The study revealed that the effect of the BCG vaccine was noticed in the employees after a month. It should be noted that no employee was infected in spite of suffering from some serious diseases and are still working in COVID-19 hospital without getting infected.

Dr Renu Aggarwal mentioned that when coronavirus cases started increasing in India, doctors in the US, England, the UK and Italy were giving BCG vaccines to their healthcare workers. She took motivation from there and started the research study after dividing the staff workers of the hospital in two groups. The discoveries of the study were published on 4th November.

Source: Zee News