Disseminated Bacille Calmette-Guérin Infection in Immunodeficient Infants: Report of Two Cases

Introduction: the bacille calmette-guérin (bcg), a live attenuated mycobacterium bovis vaccine, is administered to all the newborns in tunisia in order to prevent tuberculosis (tb). complications of this vaccine are uncommon. however, it poses a risk for children with unknown immunodeficiency. case presentation: we report on disseminated bcg disease in two infants, respectively, with severe combined immunodeficiency and human immunodeficiency virus (hiv). evolution was fatal for both, despite adequate anti- tuberculosis treatment. conclusions: molecular methods are available to respond to the urgent need for rapid and specific diagnosis of local/regional or systemic bcg disease, using available commercial kits genotype® mtbc and genotype® mtbdrplus. these tests allow preventionof inoculation of live vaccines such as bcg among the next siblings until appropriate screening tests exclude primary or secondary immunodeficiency syndromes.