Bcg-Osis After Bcg Vaccination in Immunocompromised Children: Case Series and Review

Bacillus calmette guerin (bcg) developed by albert calmette andcamille guerin in france between 1908 and 1921 contained a liveattenuated strain of mycobacterium bovis and was administered worldwideto prevent tuberculosis. bcg vaccination is also administered at birth to allthe newborns in iran. disseminated bcg infection after bcg vaccinationis rare. here in, we report 2 new cases of disseminated bcg infectionand review 15 additional cases identified from our previous retrospectivestudy during a 5-year period from 2005-2010. all of these reported patientswere vaccinated. impaired immunity was detected in 10 cases (59%)including severe combined immunodeficiency, chronic granulomatousdisease, mendelian susceptibility to mycobacterial disease, combinedvariable immunodeficiency, and hiv infection. response to therapy waspoor among those patients with immune deficiencies, but the overallmortality rate was 32.3%. disseminated bcg infection is a rare butdevastating complication of vaccination. immune-compromised childrenare at high risk of developing bcg related complications including regionalbcg-itis or disseminated disease; bcg-osis.