Early life BCG vaccination protects against type 1 and type 2 diabetes, study finds

Canada: A recent study in Diabetes & Metabolism has stated that getting BCG vaccination early in life is associated with a lower type 1 and type 2 diabetes risk from early to middle adulthood, but not latent autoimmune diabetes (LADA). 

Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) in previous studies has been shown to limit autoimmunity and elevations in blood sugar. However, despite possible effects on other phenotypes later in life, these studies focused on type 1 diabetes among children. Considering this, Philippe Corsenac, Institut national de la recherche scientifique, Laval, Canada, and colleagues aimed to investigate the association between BCG vaccination and type 1, type 2, and LADA in adulthood. 

For this purpose, the researchers linked a 1970-1974 birth cohort with the BCG vaccination registry and administrative health data of Quebec. 396,118 people aged 22-44 years were followed for the onset of diabetes mellitus (DM). 

Incident DM cases were subjects with ≥1 hospitalization or ≥2 physician claims related to DM over a 2-year period. Individuals with ≥1 reimbursement of insulin, oral antidiabetic agent, or both were considered as type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and LADA cases. Hazard ratios (HR), adjusting for potential confounders were estimated using Cox proportional regressions.