1950s TB vaccine may protect against coronavirus: researcher

One of the world’s leading immunologists believes a decades-old tuberculosis vaccine could be a solution to the coronavirus pandemic.

One of the world’s leading immunologists, who started his medical career with the Royal Flying ­Doctor Service at Mount Isa, says one of the solutions to the coronavirus pandemic is the decades-old tuberculosis vaccine BCG and its modern variant IMM-101.

Intriguingly, Angus Dalgleish said countries that have had mass BCG vaccinations now have vastly reduced rates of severe ­coronavirus infections.

Professor Dalgleish said countries that never had this vaccina­tion, such as the US and The Netherlands, are showing higher infection rates, while Germany, Japan and Sweden, which have long inoculated their citizens with BCG, have lower infection rates.

His theory — the subject of a study by the New York Institute of Technology — could be borne out if stark differences emerge in Australi­an states.

In the 1950s, there was a BCG vaccination program for all Aust­ralian schoolchildren except those from NSW and the ACT. It was stopped in the mid-1980s and in 1991 in the Northern Territory.

Some scientists believe those that had the vaccine as youngsters are able to ward off the effects of coronavirus more easily.

Professor Angus Dalgleish says countries that had mass BCG vaccinations of the tuberculosis injection have reduced rates of severe coronavirus infections.

The American researchers found that the elderly were protected in countries with universal and longstanding BCG policies from the 1940s to the 1960s.

Professor Dalgleish, now the Foundation Professor of Oncol­ogy at St George’s University of London, is famous both for making a significant breakthrough in the virology of HIV/AIDS and advocating­ the use of thalidomide for myeloma and lymphoma treatment, now commonly adopted throughout the world.

Professor Dalgleish, 69, has approache­d Britain’s National Health Service to conduct a trial of a mycobacterial product called IMM-101, which is an improved immune version of the BCG vaccine­. He believes IMM-101 and BCG will be crucial weapons in fighting the coronavirus. Earlier this week, researchers at the ­Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Australia announced a randomised, multi-centre clinical trial to test the use of BCG against coronavirus.

About 4000 healthcare workers at hospitals including the Royal Children’s Hospital in ­Melbourne will be vaccinated with BCG. The institute said previous studies showed that BCG decreased­ the amount of virus in patients infected by similar corona­viruses, such as SARS.

Murdoch Children’s Research Institute director Kathryn North said: “This trial will allow the vaccine­’s effectiveness against COVID-19 symptoms to be properly tested, and may help save the lives of our heroic frontline healthcare workers.”

Professor Dalgleish said IMM-101 was slightly better than BCG because it was a newer-­generation treatment, not live, and appeared to boost immunity ­without any side-effects.

But he said either would help frontline medical staff. “MM-101 works by stimulating the innate immune system that protects us from attack by viruses,’’ he said.

“The cells stimulated by IMM-101 include natural killer cells and secrete cytokines, which are known to kill viruses.’’

Professor Dalgleish has had anecdotal­ evidence that IMM-101 provided life-saving boosts to immunity for his colon cancer and melanoma patients.

He said dozens of his patients had commented along the lines of: “I don’t know about how the ­cancer is doing, but this is the first winter I’ve been going around and haven’t had the flu, even though the rest of the family has it.’’

Professor Dalgleish says Australian frontline medical staff could be well served by having IMM-101 as a precautionary shot for their immune system.