Abstract
Aim: The effect of previous Bacillus Calmette – Guerin (BCG) vaccination the clinical presentation and severity of symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTb) has not been investigated previously. The aim of this study was to explore the effectiveness of BCG vaccination on clinical symptoms of PTb in patients with tuberculosis from northwestern provinces of Iran.
Methods: A cross sectional study on 358 patients with diagnosis of PTb was performed recording and scoring severity of their 10 symptoms, including cough, sputum production, hemoptysis, fever, fatigue, weakness, loss of appetite, weight loss, dyspnea and chest pain. Also Tb- drug resistance was tested using standard proportion method. BCG scar and clinical symptoms were examined and recorded by clinical practitioner.
Results: Of the subjects included in study 264 cases (73. 7%) had no BCG vaccination scar. Comparison of severity of clinical symptoms of PTB in patients with BCG vaccine history with those lacking vaccination history revealed the lower symptom severity in patients with history of vaccination (vaccine effectiveness = 95.5%; p<0.00001).
Conclusion: The results of this study may imply that BCG vaccination may decrease the severity of clinical symptoms in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.
- Copyright ©the authors 2016
