BCG vaccine BCG was adopted by the Health Committee of the League of Nations (predecessor to the WHO). Because of opposition, however, it only became widely used after World War II. From 1945 to 1948, relief organizations (International Tuberculosis Campaign or Joint Enterprises) vaccinated over 8 million babies in eastern Europe and prevented the predicted typical increase of TB after a major war. BCG is very efficacious against tuberculous meningitis in the pediatric age group, but its efficacy against pulmonary tuberculosis appears to be variable. As of 2006, only a few countries do not use BCG for routine vaccination. Two countries that
Inoculation needle needle-oriented culture methods. The application of inoculation needles focuses on the inoculation and isolation of very defined regions of the cultures and the requirements of least disturbance between two closely crowded microbial colonies. It can also be used in harpooning under a low magnification microscope. Streaking on streak plates, fish tail inoculation of slant cultures and the inoculation of stab cultures can be done with the inoculation needle. Stab cultures specifically require the inoculation needle and is used to study cell motility, microbial oxygen requirements using Thioglycolate cultures, and the gelatin liquefaction of bacteria. The inoculation needle is sterilized using