Neonatal BCG vaccination and child survival in TB-exposed and TB-unexposed children: a prospective cohort study.
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ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVES:To assess the association between neonatal BCG vaccination and mortality between 28 days and 3 years of age among tuberculosis (TB)-exposed and TB-unexposed children. DESIGN:Prospective cohort study. SETTING:Bandim Health Project runs an urban Health and Demographic Surveillance site in Guinea-Bissau with registration of mortality, vaccination status and TB cases. PARTICIPANTS:Children entered the analysis when their vaccination card was inspected after 28 days of age and remained under surveillance to 3 years of age. Children residing in the same house as a TB case were classified as TB-exposed from 3 months prior to case registration to the end of follow-up. METHODS:Using Cox-proportional hazards models with age as underlying time scale, we compared mortality of children with and without neonatal BCG between October 2003 and September 2017. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE:HR for neonatal BCG compared with no neonatal BCG by TB-exposure status. RESULTS:Among the 39?421 children who entered the analyses, 3022 (8%) had observation time as TB-exposed. In total, 84% of children received neonatal BCG. Children with neonatal BCG had lower mortality both in TB-exposed (adjusted HR: 0.57 (0.26 to 1.27)) and in TB-unexposed children (HR: 0.57 (95% CI 0.47 to 0.69)) than children without neonatal BCG. Children exposed to TB had higher mortality than TB-unexposed children if they had not received neonatal BCG. CONCLUSION:Neonatal BCG vaccination was associated with lower mortality among both TB-exposed and TB-unexposed children, consistent with neonatal BCG vaccination having beneficial non-specific effects. Interventions to increase timely BCG vaccination are urgently warranted.
SUBMITTER: Thysen SM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7050365 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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