Children benefit from BCG BCG vaccine is a non-toxic live vaccine that can prevent the occurrence of tuberculosis, and is particularly effective in the prevention of cornual tuberculosis and tuberculous meningitis in children. This is well documented and recognized. Newborns have poor resistance to various diseases, including tuberculosis, and since specific cellular immunity against tuberculosis cannot be brought from the mother to the baby, once infected with the tuberculosis bacillus, there is a high risk of hematogenous dissemination, followed by cornual tuberculosis and tuberculous meningitis. These two most serious forms of tuberculosis also have the highest mortality rate. BCG vaccine is particularly effective in preventing both cornual tuberculosis and tuberculous meningitis because it prevents blood-borne transmission of the tuberculosis bacilli. In some areas where vaccination is consistently administered, tuberculous meningitis is nearly eliminated in children aged 0-4 years, and there have been no deaths from tuberculosis in children under 14 years of age. Therefore, BCG vaccination is most effective in preventing tuberculosis in babies born with normal development. The question of whether or not to give BCG vaccination has long been a controversial issue internationally, with many scholars holding different opinions. In countries or regions with a high risk of TB infection, long-term BCG vaccination can play a significant role in preventing the occurrence of TB in children and reducing TB mortality. The World Health Organization also believes that BCG vaccination remains one of the TB control measures to date. However, there are limitations to the role of BCG vaccine, such as its weak preventive effect against TB in adults. The most effective weapon for TB control is the detection of patients and the cure of sputum smear-positive TB patients, not BCG vaccination. BCG vaccine can only prevent primary and sputum-negative TB and therefore cannot change its prevalence. The World Health Organization suggests that before a country (or region) with low TB prevalence can consider discontinuing BCG vaccination, the following criteria must be met: ① In the previous 3 years, the average registration rate of sputum smear-positive TB patients should be 5/100,000 population or less; ② In the previous 5 years or more, the average registration rate of TB meningitis in children under 5 years of age should be less than 1/10 million of the total population; ③ The average annual infection rate of TB should be 0.1% or less. The 1999 National Tuberculosis Control Manual stipulates that BCG vaccination should be given to newborns at the latest within one year of age. New vaccine on the horizon Given that BCG has a number of “inherent flaws,” many countries are stepping up efforts to develop a new generation of more effective anti-TB vaccines at a time when the global TB epidemic is in a state of emergency. Since the emergence of a new generation of nucleic acid (gene) vaccines in the early 1990s, breakthroughs have been made, with Merck (MerCH) creating a vaccine in 1996 using a single gene (known as naked DNA-deoxyribonucleic acid). In the same year, the UIM University in Germany obtained significant prevention of tuberculosis after inoculating mice with a plasmid DNA construct encoding antigen 85. It is known that the United States has launched DNA vaccines for AIDS, influenza, and simple vesicular virus in 1996, and DNA vaccines for tuberculosis and hepatitis B were submitted for review in 1997. A new generation of highly effective anti-tuberculosis vaccines, if developed successfully, will certainly greatly accelerate the pace of tuberculosis control.