Did anyone in the US take the BCG vaccine, ever?

[madteaparty]

Was talking (on the phone 🙄) to an older colleague today and she thinks she has the same scar I do. It would be awesome if she had had this vaccine but I am not reading anything that indicates the US ever administered it. Am I wrong? Hopefully? 

[Jean in Newcastle]

No idea. I got it in Asia. (Btw I am still immunocompromised.). 

[EmseB]

The scar looks similar to the smallpox vaccine which a lot of older adults and some military folks have gotten in the US.

[Rachel]

My mom has a round scar in her arm from childhood, she was vaccinated in the US. I think it was for small pox. My dad is 4 years older and doesn’t have one. 
 

I have a friend my age who has a scar that looks just like it but she is Czech. 

[Terabith]

I'm pretty sure my husband got it in the Air Force, but he was on a NEST team.  He has a scar, and he's too young for smallpox.

[Jaybee]

The BCG scar is more like a little circular dent, maybe about the size of a flat-head nail in width. The smallpox scar is larger and round, a little smaller than a dime, but not as much of a dent--flatter. When I asked in the U.S. about the BCG vaccine, everyone (medical personnel) kind of scoffed about it, saying it wasn't effective and they didn't give it. However, when we were overseas, it was a standard part of the vaccine protocol. We didn't fight it. Then when one ds was an infant, I asked the pediatrician about the rest of us. He said he would strongly recommend it. So who should we listen to? We went ahead and followed the pediatrician's recommendation because we were living in a TB-prone country, and the doctors there had a lot of experience in that context. Whether that will help protect us now, years later, and under different circumstances, I don't know, but I sure hope so!

[madteaparty]

6 minutes ago, Jaybee said:

The BCG scar is more like a little circular dent, maybe about the size of a flat-head nail in width. The smallpox scar is larger and round, a little smaller than a dime, but not as much of a dent--flatter. When I asked in the U.S. about the BCG vaccine, everyone (medical personnel) kind of scoffed about it, saying it wasn't effective and they didn't give it. However, when we were overseas, it was a standard part of the vaccine protocol. We didn't fight it. Then when one ds was an infant, I asked the pediatrician about the rest of us. He said he would strongly recommend it. So who should we listen to? We went ahead and followed the pediatrician's recommendation because we were living in a TB-prone country, and the doctors there had a lot of experience in that context. Whether that will help protect us now, years later, and under different circumstances, I don't know, but I sure hope so!

My scar looks like the smallpox scar but my mother confirms I had the BCG when I was born and anyway it was/is in the protocol in that country. Side effect is that my sister who works in healthcare always test “positive” for the TB test bc she has the antibodies. She has to do some sort of follow up test every time. Maybe it was all worth it but who knows. 

Edited April 7, 2020 by madteaparty

[Jaybee]

Yeah, as to the efficacy of it against TB, I have no idea. Due to positive TB test results, several of us later have had to do INH protocols in the U.S., and the healthcare professionals have to get x-rays occasionally instead of the TB tests, because they will always be positive. I don't know whether it's worth it or not, but for the ones who were newborns in those countries, they would have gotten the vaccines because, if I remember correctly, they were mandated by law. 

[Arcadia]

https://www.cdc.gov/tb/publications/factsheets/prevention/bcg.htm

“Children. BCG vaccination should only be considered for children who have a negative tuberculin skin test and who are continually exposed, and cannot be separated from, adults who

• Are untreated or ineffectively treated for TB disease (if the child cannot be given long-term treatment for infection); or
• Have TB caused by strains resistant to isoniazid and rifampin.

Health Care Workers. BCG vaccination of health care workers should be considered on an individual basis in settings in which

• A high percentage of TB patients are infected with M. tuberculosis strains resistant to both isoniazid and rifampin;
• There is ongoing transmission of such drug-resistant M. tuberculosis strains to health care workers and subsequent infection is likely; or
• Comprehensive TB infection-control precautions have been implemented, but have not been successful.

Health care workers considered for BCG vaccination should be counseled regarding the risks and benefits associated with both BCG vaccination and treatment of Latent TB Infection (LTBI).”

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00041047.htm

“The Role of BCG Vaccine in the Prevention and Control of Tuberculosis in the United States A Joint Statement by the Advisory Council for the Elimination of Tuberculosis and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices 

Advisory Council for the Elimination of Tuberculosis (ACET) 

September 1995”

 

[DesertBlossom]

1 hour ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

No idea. I got it in Asia. (Btw I am still immunocompromised.). 

I am curious what you mean by this. This vaccine caused you to be immunocompromised? 

This vaccine is only on my radar because there is a scientist beginning human trials soon using the bcg vaccine to cure Type 1 diabetes. Really interesting.

[Jean in Newcastle]

1 hour ago, DesertBlossom said:

I am curious what you mean by this. This vaccine caused you to be immunocompromised? 

This vaccine is only on my radar because there is a scientist beginning human trials soon using the bcg vaccine to cure Type 1 diabetes. Really interesting.

No.  I mean that it didn't do some super power thing on my immune system.  Though maybe I'm an anomaly.  Who knows. 

[madteaparty]

3 hours ago, DesertBlossom said:

I am curious what you mean by this. This vaccine caused you to be immunocompromised? 

This vaccine is only on my radar because there is a scientist beginning human trials soon using the bcg vaccine to cure Type 1 diabetes. Really interesting.

This vaccine is on my radar bc of a an apparent correlation between low cases of Covid and countries that have a vaccination program that includes it: 

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.01.20049478v1.full.pdf

https://www.euronews.com/2020/04/06/has-the-key-to-a-coronoavirus-vaccine-been-staring-us-in-the-face-for-a-century

[EmseB]

5 hours ago, Terabith said:

I'm pretty sure my husband got it in the Air Force, but he was on a NEST team.  He has a scar, and he's too young for smallpox.

The Air Force gives out small pox vax for troops going overseas. I got one in the early 2000s so I am also technically too young for small pox vax, but everyone going to the middle east got one (not bcg).

Edited April 7, 2020 by EmseB

[DawnM]

I did not, and my father was the overseeing doc for the TB ward.  He was exposed to the. point where he can't do a skin test as it is always positive.   He has to get an X-Ray.

We actually had about 3 different people live in our house, with TB, while they recovered.

And yet, through all of that, I can still take a skin test and have it come back negative.  I must be pretty immune.  

[Eos]

*

Edited February 6, 2023 by Eos

[Jaybee]

8 hours ago, Arcadia said:

https://www.cdc.gov/tb/publications/factsheets/prevention/bcg.htm

“Children. BCG vaccination should only be considered for children who have a negative tuberculin skin test and who are continually exposed, and cannot be separated from, adults who

• Are untreated or ineffectively treated for TB disease (if the child cannot be given long-term treatment for infection); or
• Have TB caused by strains resistant to isoniazid and rifampin.

Health Care Workers. BCG vaccination of health care workers should be considered on an individual basis in settings in which

• A high percentage of TB patients are infected with M. tuberculosis strains resistant to both isoniazid and rifampin;
• There is ongoing transmission of such drug-resistant M. tuberculosis strains to health care workers and subsequent infection is likely; or
• Comprehensive TB infection-control precautions have been implemented, but have not been successful.

Health care workers considered for BCG vaccination should be counseled regarding the risks and benefits associated with both BCG vaccination and treatment of Latent TB Infection (LTBI).”

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00041047.htm

“The Role of BCG Vaccine in the Prevention and Control of Tuberculosis in the United States A Joint Statement by the Advisory Council for the Elimination of Tuberculosis and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices 

Advisory Council for the Elimination of Tuberculosis (ACET) 

September 1995”

 

Interesting. I didn't even think it was available in the U.S.

[SKL]

I have heard that some kids adopted internationally have had it.  (I don't think my kids did.)

I also heard it wears off in a relatively short time period, so I wouldn't necessarily assume anything, but it would be interesting to test if there are enough subjects.

[madteaparty]

17 minutes ago, SKL said:

I have heard that some kids adopted internationally have had it.  (I don't think my kids did.)

I also heard it wears off in a relatively short time period, so I wouldn't necessarily assume anything, but it would be interesting to test if there are enough subjects.

I have not heard this, the opposite actually. (Re the wearing out ) 

[EKS]

5 hours ago, DawnM said:

We actually had about 3 different people live in our house, with TB, while they recovered.

And yet, through all of that, I can still take a skin test and have it come back negative.  I must be pretty immune.  

TB is actually quite difficult to catch.  If your skin test comes back negative, it means that you have no immunity.  

[Terabith]

7 hours ago, EmseB said:

The Air Force gives out small pox vax for troops going overseas. I got one in the early 2000s so I am also technically too young for small pox vax, but everyone going to the middle east got one (not bcg).

Yes, but he didn’t get the small pox vaccine (or anthrax) because I was pregnant.  If he’d been deployed, they would have given it last minute, but there was a whole thing that he couldn’t get those because of living with someone immune compromised. 

[EmseB]

1 hour ago, Terabith said:

Yes, but he didn’t get the small pox vaccine (or anthrax) because I was pregnant.  If he’d been deployed, they would have given it last minute, but there was a whole thing that he couldn’t get those because of living with someone immune compromised. 

Interesting. I have never heard of the military giving bcg but they do like to give shots out like candy, so could have been! They don't do it routinely or for deployments as far as I know. 🤷‍♀️