Covid Long in BATTLE Clinical Trial
February 2025
TLDR BCG injection helps reduce long COVID symptoms and affects hair loss differently in men and women.
The BATTLE clinical trial evaluated the effects of Bacillus Calmette-Gurin (BCG) injection on COVID-19 convalescent adults, revealing that BCG improved recovery from anosmia and dysgeusia during acute disease and reduced long COVID symptoms such as hearing, sleeping, concentration, memory, and vision problems at six and twelve months. Interestingly, BCG's effects on hair loss varied by gender, increasing hair loss in women and decreasing it in men at six months. The study suggests BCG's immunomodulatory effects involve FasL expression inhibition and increased induction of IL-6, IL-10, IFITM3, and ACE2, indicating that BCG may train the immune system through complex feedback mechanisms.
