Effect of mass BCG vaccination at birth on the incidence of tuberculosis among Jewish children in Israel.

This report evaluates the effect of BCG vaccination at birth on the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) among Jewish children born in Israel between 1956 and 1979 and aged 0 to 12 years. In the years 1956-79, 299 new cases of TB were diagnosed; 164 of these patients had been vaccinated at birth (an incidence rate of 1.9/100,000 person-years at risk), and 106 had not (a rate of 3.1 significantly higher than among the vaccinated children). Nevertheless, because of the low incidence of TB among Jewish children born in Israel, the number of cases that were prevented by vaccination was relatively small (mean of 4.2/year). The protective efficacy of vaccination was 38%: 24% for pulmonary and 64% for extrapulmonary TB.