Should medical students be routinely offered BCG vaccination?

Senanayake, Sanjaya N; Collignon, Peter J

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2007.tb00814.x

Topics

To the Editor: We disagree with the recent recommendation of Graham and colleagues that all medical students should be offered BCG vaccination.1 In countries with a low prevalence of tuberculosis (TB), the side effects from the vaccine and losing the use of a Mantoux test to readily diagnose recent TB infection outweigh any benefits of a vaccine with relatively poor efficacy.

The Canberra Hospital, Canberra, ACT.

Correspondence: djaya@bigpond.com

1. Graham M, Howley TM, Pierce RJ, Johnson PD. Should medical students be routinely offered BCG vaccination? Med J Aust 2006; 185: 324-326. <MJA full text>
2. Roche PW, Antic R, Bastian I, et al. Tuberculosis notifications in Australia, 2004. Commun Dis Intell 2006; 30: 93-101.
3. Lumb R, Bastian I, Crighton T, et al. Tuberculosis in Australia: bacteriologically confirmed cases and drug resistance, 2004. A report of the Australian Mycobacterium Reference Laboratory Network. Commun Dis Intell 2006; 30: 102-108.
4. Australian immunisation handbook. 8th ed. Canberra: National Health and Medical Research Council, 2003.
5. Patel A, Schofield F, Siskind V, et al. Case-control evaluation of a school-age BCG vaccination programme in subtropical Australia. Bull World Health Organ 1991; 69: 425-433.
6. Nahid P, Pai M, Hopewell PC. Advances in the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis. Proc Am Thorac Soc 2006; 3: 103-110.

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