Effect of Bacillus Calmette Guerin Vaccination on Human Macrophages

Tuberculosis continues to be a major infectious cause of global morbidity and mortality, both in children and adults, in spite of widespread vaccination of infants with Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) and the availability of effective antibiotics. The failure of BCG to significantly affect disease incidence in adults in many endemic countries, combined with the growing HIV epidemic and the appearance of multidrug resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, threatens to overwhelm current tuberculosis control strategies. This unfortunate state of affairs has driven an intensive search for better tuberculosis vaccines. - DN McMurray. Indian J Pediatr 67 (2 Suppl), S58-S62. 2000