The Bacille Calmette-Guerin or BCG vaccine, originally made against tuberculosis, gives an effective preventive action against various infections -- possibly also against COVID-19, say researchers, adding that it also protects elderly people from respiratory infections.

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BCG is frequently given to children, but a double-blind randomised clinical study, published in the journal Cell, shows that elderly people also benefit from it. "Two years ago we started the ACTIVATE study, with the aim of showing whether BCG vaccination could protect against infections in vulnerable elderly people," said study researcher Mihai Netea from Radboud University in the Netherlands.

According to the researchers, patients over 65 years of age who were admitted to hospital were randomised to receive BCG or placebo vaccination at their discharge. "We followed them for a year to see if BCG could protect them against a broad range of infections," Netea said.

The team revealed that the ACTIVATE study had already started before the corona pandemic. A total of 198 elderly people were given either a placebo or a BCG vaccine upon discharge from the hospital. During the research, there was a noticeable difference: in the placebo group, 42.3 percent of the elderly developed an infection, while this was the case in only 25 percent of the BCG group.