NEW DELHI: In its attempt to roll out the BCG vaccination drive among adults for the first time, the health department will begin a door-to-door survey in the city to prepare a list of beneficiaries, ascertaining the high-risk group more vulnerable to develop the tuberculosis, official sources said.
They said the selected adults will be prioritized for the anti-TB vaccination which will target some high-risk groups — those older than 50 years, underweight adults, diabetics, and those who smoke and consume alcohol. ASHA workers will visit the households in the city and identify the vulnerable groups.
“A list of high-risk individuals will be prepared and submitted to the Central TB division. After completion of the list, BCC vaccination among adults will begin based on the data,” said a senior health department official. “The drive is expected to begin by February-end,” said the official.
Officials informed this newspaper that one dose of the BCG vaccine will be given to eligible groups in the vaccination drive, which will be in a “programme implementation study mode” to evaluate the effectiveness of the vaccine in reducing TB disease incidence.
“The authorities would study the efficacy of the BCG vaccination in a large group of adults with different categories of risk factors. The National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT) will value the results,” another senior official said.
The government has been doing a clinical trial on the response of BCG vaccination among adults since 2019. Since the exercise would take a very long time to complete and the safety profile of the jab is already established, it was prudent to implement BCG revaccination.
Why adults need the vaccine
At present, only children up to five years of age are given the dose of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine. However, health experts have advocated carrying out the vaccination drive among adults since a large number of people still become infected with TB despite taking jabs in their childhood.