ESPE Abstracts (2024) 98 P3-48

ESPE2024 Poster Category 3 Diabetes and Insulin (36 abstracts)

Influence of the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine on the incidence of cases of type 1 diabetes mellitus in children and adolescents in the Basque Country (last CCAA to withdraw vaccination in Spain)

Ignacio Diez-Lopez 1,2 , Sandra Maeso Mendez 2 , Ruth Gago Martin 2 & Miguel Angel Ogueta Lana 3


1Departament of Pediatric. UPV-EHU, Vitoria, Spain. 2HU Araba. Osakidetza, Vitoria, Spain. 3Basque Country Gobern, Vitoria, Spain


Type 1 diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease of autoimmune etiology that is highly prevalent in childhood. In the last decade, the possibility of using the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine for the treatment of this disease has been studied thanks to its immunomodulatory action. These authors published a few years ago an inconclusive work on the influence of the use of BCG on the number of cases observed in the CCAA in a smaller cohort (Bol S Vasco- Nav Pediatrician 2022; 54:16-21) . The objective of this work is to increase the study period with new data on the incidence of cases of DM type 1a by already having most of the cohort of children who debut in the last 5 years not exposed to the use of the vaccine (eliminated from the calendar 01/01/2013)

Methods: Epidemiological: study comparing cumulative incidences between vaccinated and unvaccinated population groups from the end of vaccination (2012) to the present in the entire population of the CCAA under 19 years of age.

Results: Study population of more than 423,500 people in 11 years of study Number of cases of DM type 1a in the CCAA 639 cases in < 19 years. Cases in exposed to BCG 503 vaccine vs. those not exposed to BCG 136 vaccine. Mean incidence of DMtype 1a of 14.70 cases/100,000 inhabitants <19 a on average, among men 16.52 vs women 13.92 (p:0.02) Mean incidence of type 1a DM cases among the population vaccinated with BCG is 14.99 cases/100,000 vs. non-BCG vaccinated is 10.32 OR is 1.45 [0.7-2.9] 95% The incidence of DM cases among VACCINATED people is on average higher than that of unvaccinated people. As time passes (population <19 to present a lower proportion of individuals exposed to BCG) over time both incidences become similar and even the unvaccinated exceed the vaccinated. Our prevalence has remained in the medium-low range compared to what was published in Spain in 2015 with a discrete progressive or upward slope increase in the last 10 years (https://www.infosalus.com/asistencia/noticia-sed-seen-seep-they-start-first-national-registry-diabetes-type-espana-20220428151413.html)

Conclusion: The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine has been postulated as a treatment for autoimmune, allergic, infectious or oncological processes, although more studies are still necessary. In our series, the incidence of the vaccinated was higher than that of the unvaccinated for a certain time, suggesting a certain herd effect, since in the last years studied the prevalence among the unvaccinated was higher than those who received BCG.

Volume 98

62nd Annual ESPE (ESPE 2024)

Liverpool, UK
16 Nov 2024 - 18 Nov 2024

European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology 

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