Effectiveness of bacillus of Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination against tuberculous meningitis: a case-control study

A hospital-based pair-matched case-control study was carried out at Government Medical College Hospital, Nagpur to estimate the effectiveness of bacillus of Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination against tuberculous meningitis. The study included 92 cases of tuberculous meningitis in the age group of 0-12 years and equal number of controls, matched for age, sex and socio-economic status. The protective effectiveness and prevented fraction were higher for the subjects in the age group of 0-6 years, males and subjects from upper strata of socio-economic class. The overall vaccine effectiveness and prevented fraction were estimated to be 86.54% (70.38-93.88%) and 65.54% (39.22-80.64%) respectively. Results of this study thus indicated that BCG vaccination was highly effective against tuberculous meningitis and played significant role in its prevention, in this population.