Children with lymphadenitis associated with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination do not experience more infections when compared with BCG-vaccinated children without lymphadenitis: a three years paired-cohort in Mexico.

OBJECTIVES

Vaccination against tuberculosis with live-attenuated Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is widely used even though its effectiveness is controversial. BCG-lymphadenitis (BCG-LA) is its most common complication. Some studies have proposed that BCG-LA can be associated with primary immunodeficiencies (PIs). This study's aim is to see whether patients who developed BCG-LA (named as 'LA') developed more infections than BCG-vaccinated children without BCG-LA (named as 'NON-LA').

METHODS

From January 2009 to April 2014, 31 LA children were seen at the outpatient clinic of the General Hospital of Tijuana, Mexico. Among them, 22 (70.97%), 5 (16.13%) and 4 (12.9%) had axillary, supraclavicular, or both BCG-LA, respectively. No treatment was given and complications were not seen. Per LA subject, a NON-LA not >1 month of age difference and same gender was paired and followed for 3 years to look for ambulatory infections (AINFs), acute otitis media (AOM) and hospitalizations. Surveillance per patient was performed by phone monthly, and they were seen at the clinic every 4 months. All patients were HIV-negative and had no family history of PI. Statistical analyses used were relative risk (RR) with confidence intervals (CI), test for independent variables and test.

RESULTS

In total 62 subjects were enrolled: 31 LA paired with 31 NON-LA. Between them, there were no differences in age, day care attendance and breastfeeding. There were no differences in the total number of AINF per patient (LA: 18.61 avg. ± 5.03 SD NON-LA: 18.19 avg. ± 4.17 SD, RR = 1.06, 95% CI = 0.33-0.66), AOM total episodes (LA: 30 NON-LA: 26, RR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.31-0.68) and hospitalizations (LA: 5 NON-LA: 4, RR = 1, 95% CI = 0.25-0.74).

CONCLUSIONS

This cohort strongly suggests that BCG-LA in healthy children is not associated with more episodes of AINF and hospitalizations, when paired and compared with children BCG-vaccinated without BCG-LA.