What does BCG prevent?

We know that newborns are injected with various vaccines to prevent various diseases during their growth. BCG is a vaccine that is injected into babies under three months old. Many parents do not know much about BCG vaccine and are concerned about what BCG vaccine can prevent. BCG vaccine is a vaccine used to prevent tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is very harmful and difficult to prevent, so it requires vaccination to prevent it.

BCG vaccination is very beneficial to the healthy growth of children and has a very obvious effect in preventing tuberculosis, especially severe types of tuberculosis that may endanger children's lives, such as tuberculous meningitis and miliary tuberculosis.

Research by the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that the average effectiveness of BCG vaccination in preventing tuberculous meningitis and disseminated tuberculosis is 86%; the effectiveness in preventing tuberculosis-related deaths is 65%, the effectiveness in preventing deaths from tuberculous meningitis is 64%, and the effectiveness in preventing deaths from disseminated tuberculosis is 78%.

Over the years, thousands of lives have been saved through BCG vaccination.

When bathing a newborn after vaccination, care should be taken to avoid wetting the skin at the injection site with bath water. For this reason, when bathing, you can wrap the upper arm with a clean handkerchief or sterilized gauze, and do not touch it frequently with your hands to keep the area clean and avoid infection by other bacteria.

If the abscess or ulcer at the vaccination site does not heal for more than 6 months, you should check whether the baby has obviously enlarged axillary lymph nodes. It is recommended to take the baby to the Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Center for examination. If it is indeed a pustule, the pus needs to be extracted with a sterilized syringe. Generally, it can be cured in 2 to 3 times.

After BCG vaccination, the vaccinator will make a record on the newborn's vaccination card. If there is no record on the vaccination certificate, you should promptly ask the hospital where the newborn was born for the reason so that the vaccination can be carried out in time when it is possible.

Local reactions will not occur until the newborn is almost one month old. The injection site will become red and swollen and a lump will form. Later, the center of the lump will gradually soften and form a small pustule. When the small pustule ruptures on its own, yellow-white pus may ooze out. At this time, an ulcer will form locally and a scab will form. Pus will then ooze out and a scab will form, and this will be repeated many times. Finally, after 2-3 months, the scab will fall off, forming a permanent, slightly sunken round scar. This is a normal reaction to BCG vaccination.