Tuberculin allergy in infants vaccinated with Czechoslovak, Danish or Swedish BCG vaccine.

It is well known that BCG vaccination in the newborn is particularly difficult to carry out with satisfactory results. The allergic response is delayed and weak in comparison with that in older children, and attempts to compensate for this by using a more potent vaccine often result in a high incidence of regional lymphadenitis. The preliminary results of a blind comparative trial, in newborn children, of BCG vaccine from Czechoslovakia. Denmark and Sweden are reported. There was no case of lymphadenitis in any of the three vaccine groups. The allergic reactions induced by the Danish and Swedish vaccines were of equal strength, although the vaccination scars from the Swedish vaccine were slightly larger. The vaccine from Czechoslovakia produced strikingly weaker allergic reactions as well as definitely smaller scars than the other two vaccines.