Introduction: Type 1 diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease of autoimmune etiology that is highly prevalent in childhood. In the last decade, the possibility of using the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine for the treatment of this disease has been studied thanks to its immunomodulatory action .
Objectives: The objective of this work is to carry out a systematic review of the available scientific evidence on the relationship between the tuberculosis vaccine and the treatment of diabetes in childhood. Secondarily, the aim is to study the incidence of Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus in a cohort of children from the Basque Country according to whether or not they have received the vaccine.
Methods: An exhaustive bibliographic search has been carried out on the evidence available to date. For the epidemiological study in Euskadi, a comparison of accumulated incidences between vaccinated and unvaccinated population groups was made.
Results: According to the literature analyzed, There is more and more evidence about the possible use of the tuberculosis vaccine in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. The results of our study were not conclusive, but we believe that it is necessary to continue with long-term studies to eliminate biases.
Conclusions: The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine could be used for the treatment of autoimmune, allergic, infectious or oncological processes, although more studies are still necessary in this regard.