Exactly what is the Vaccine for TB?

       The vaccine for tuberculosis is known as BCG, which stands for Bacille Calmette-Guérin. However, this vaccine is not used often in the United States. If it is used, it is only given to young children and infants. Most of the time, this BCG vaccine does not protect people from getting TB. Therefore, it is only given to people who are consulted by his/her doctor and meet criteria for the vaccination.
       Children should only be given the BCG vaccine if their skin test results are negative and if they are exposed to tuberculosis on a regular basis. Children should take the TB skin test, rather than the TB blood test.
       If health care workers would like to take the vaccine, they should be considered on an individual basis. The person may be resistant to isoniazid and rifampin or there may be a transmission of drug-resistant TB strains. Both of these situations could be a reason for health care workers to look into taking the BCG vaccine.
       If you or someone you know has received the BCG vaccination, they should receive another TB skin test to test for tuberculosis. A TB test result may come back positive if you have spent time somewhere where the TB disease is prominent, or you have been around someone who has the disease. A TB blood test is not affected by the BCG vaccination and will not give a false-positive result in people who have taken the vaccination.
       Please keep in mind that both the TB skin test and the TB blood test does not tell you if the TB infection is latent or is TB disease. These tests will only show if the person is infected with the TB bacteria. Image 1, as seen below, provides a picture of a BCG Vaccine Package.

                                                        Image 1: BCG Vaccine Package

If you would like additional information on the BCG vaccination, please look at the link provided below.

BCG Information

References

Vaccine and Immunizations. (2012, August 14). Retrieved November 8, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/tb/topic/vaccines/default.htm

Family Practice Notebook. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2014, from http://www.fpnotebook.com/legacy/ID/Immunize/BcgVcn.htm