BCG: Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (or Bacille Calmette-Guérin

May 20, 2009 November 14, 2023

Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (or Bacille Calmette-Guérin, BCG) is a vaccine against tuberculosis that is prepared from a strain of the attenuated (weakened) live bovine tuberculosis bacillus, Mycobacterium bovis, that has lost its virulence in humans by being specially cultured in an artificial medium for years. The bacilli have retained enough strong antigenicity to become a somewhat effective vaccine for the prevention of human tuberculosis. At best, the BCG vaccine is 80% effective in preventing tuberculosis for a duration of 15 years, however, its protective effect appears to vary according to geography.

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by a bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB is spread through the air by a person suffering from TB. A single patient can infect 10 or more people in a year.