BCG vaccine, vaccine against tuberculosis, . The BCG vaccine is prepared from a weakened strain of tuberculosis bacteria named BCG—bacille Calmette-Guérin, for the French scientists who developed the product. The vaccine is of particular importance for those whose occupations carry a high risk of infection by tuberculosis, such as nurses and physicians, and for persons in countries with high rates of tuberculosis Mycobacterium bovis, a bacteria closely related to M. tuberculosis, which causes the disease. The vaccine was developed over a period of 13 years, from 1908 to 1921, by French bacteriologists Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin, who named the product Bacillus Calmette-Guérin, or BCG. The vaccine is administered shortly after birth only in infants at high risk of tuberculosis. BCG vaccine produces an immune response that partly protects infants and young children from serious forms of tuberculosis. Because of the risk of infection and variability in protection associated with the vaccine, it is used only in countries where the prevalence of tuberculosis is high.
