Effect of BCG vaccination of the newborn infant on the incidence and course of juvenile leukemias

: As a retrospective study the clinical data of 613 leukaemic children were collected. 269 of them were born in Austria, fell sick between 1967 and 1976 and were not older than 5 years at the onset of disease. BCG-vaccination, which is performed in Austria within the first three days after birth, was checked by means of hospital reports, birth protocols and central BCG record. All data were stored and evaluated by electronic data processing. Besides a significant decrease of mortality, which we could demonstrate in earlier studies, the following correlations between BCG-vaccination of newborn and leukaemia were found: Reduction of morbidity, decrease of case fatality, increase of 5 years survival rate, increase of mean survival time, delayed onset of disease, decrease of frequency of myeloic and chronic leukaemia. With the exception of the slight reduction of morbidity all correlations are significant.