BCG vaccine bacilli that seemed less virulent, and changed the course of their research to see if repeated subculturing would produce a strain that was attenuated enough to be considered for use as a vaccine. The BCG strain was isolated after subculturing 239 times during 13 years from virulent strain on glycerine potato medium. The research continued throughout World War I until 1919, when the now avirulent bacilli were unable to cause tuberculosis disease in research animals. Calmette and Guerin transferred to the Paris Pasteur Institute in 1919. The BCG vaccine was first used in humans in 1921. Public acceptance was slow,
BCG disease outbreak in Finland in the 2000s In practice, however, almost everything that's connected to vaccines is done with the National Public Health Institute. NPHI also does significant research funded by outside sources - ca. 40% of funding is outside, and the policy is to get as much outside funding as possible. Among the biggest funders has been the vaccine giant GlaxoSmithKline between 2003 and 2005. In the 1970s, there was a similar outbreak of BCG osteitis osteomyelitis in some Nordic countries, Sweden and Finland, when a Swedish-Danish BCG vaccine strain was used. To resolve the issue, Sweden discontinued mass BCG vaccinations to newborns, and Finland switched