Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine, a preparation of a dried, living but attenuated culture of Mycobacterium bovis. In areas with a high incidence of tuberculosis (TB), it is used to provide passive immunity to infants against disseminated TB or TB meningitis, and it affords some protection against leprosy; it is not effective prevention, however, against pulmonary infection with tuberculosis. Among its other shortcomings, the vaccine cannot be used in pregnant women or in immunosuppressed individuals. It also produces hypersensitivity to TB skin tests, making them unreliable for several years. The vaccine can be used in cancer chemotherapy, e.g., to treat multiple myeloma and cancer of the colon, or as a bladder wash in patients with carcinoma of the bladder.

See: bacille Calmette-Guérin

Main entry:
vaccine