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
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