2021 is the year of the 100th anniversary of the first administration of the Bacillus Calmette – Guérin (BCG) to a human being. It was the start of a long journey of the world’s most widely used vaccine and is today the oldest vaccine still in use. As of today, more than 4 billion children have been vaccinated with BCG to protect them against tuberculosis. However, over the years it became apparent that BCG has also interesting non-specific effects.
As such, it is able to provide protection against various heterologous infectious and non-infectious diseases and is widely used to treat non-invasive bladder cancer. As this vaccine was developed at the Institut Pasteur de Lille under the direction of Albert Calmette, together with his co-worker Camille Guérin, the Institute has decided to celebrate this important anniversary in the form of an international scientific symposium on all aspects of BCG.
This symposium, held from November 17 to November 19, 2021 at the Institut Pasteur de Lille, Lille, France, covers:
– BCG against tuberculosis and with novel vaccine approaches
– The effect of BCG against heterologous infections
– A special session on BCG and COVID-19
– The effect of BCG against cancer
– BCG against auto-immune and inflammatory diseases.