[Comparative study of BCG vaccines: Polish, Danish and Japanese].

In a group of 1111 school children aged 12 years from two selected town in Poland (Rzeszów and Ostrołeka) a comparative study of three BCG vaccines was performed, the Polish, the Danish, and the Japanese. Tests for viability of the vaccines gave the following results: for the Polish vaccine 17680000 culturable particles in 1 mg; the Danish--12060000, and the Japanese--43540000 respectively Children eligible for vaccination were selected on the basis of prevaccination tuberculin testing with 2 TU tuberculin RT-23 with Tween 80. All the three vaccines gave high level of postvaccination tuberculin reactions measured after 10 weeks. In more than 30% of children these reactions were higher than 15 mm. The mean postvaccination reactions after the Polish vaccine was 14.2 mm (s.d.3.7), after the Danish--13.7 mm (s.d.3.9), and after the Japanese 14.9 mm(s.d.3.0). The difference between the Danish and the Japanese vaccines was statistically significant, but between the Polish and the other two vaccines was not. It was also formed that children with larger postvaccination tuberculin indurations had larger diameter of preview BCG scars.