Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination patterns in the province of Québec, Canada, 1956–1974

Background: In the province of Québec, Canada, the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine was offered to newborns and school-age children from the 1950s to mid-1970s in an organized tuberculosis prevention program. Objective: We aimed to describe the annual rates of skin test administration, proportion of skin tests that were positive, and rates of BCG vaccination from 1956 to 1974 according to age, sex, and administrative region. Methods: For rates, numerators were extracted from the Québec BCG Vaccination Registry whereas population denominators were obtained from the Canadian Census and governmental publications. Time trends were assessed with linear regression. Results: A total of 2,755,336 skin tests and 2,531,366 BCG vaccinations were administered. Yearly rates of skin tests, routinely administered before vaccination among all except newborns, were highest among children aged 5–9 (9.3 per 100) and 10–14 years (7.9 per 100). The proportion of positive skin tests varied greatly by age, ranging from

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Added on: 22 August, 2017
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