A tuberculosis vaccine usually given to children is set to be tested on frontline workers in a bid to help protect against Coronavirus.
The widely used Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine will be trialled globally to 10,000 people after the injection was found to stimulate the immune system.
The University of Exeter is leading the UK arm of the trial and will soon recruit healthcare staff and care home workers in the UK.
Participants will be given either the BCG vaccine, which is currently given to more than 100 million babies worldwide each year to protect against tuberculosis, or a placebo injection.
Participants will be given either the BCG vaccine, which is currently given to more than 100 million babies worldwide each year to protect against tuberculosis, or a placebo injection.
In the UK, routine BCG vaccination was stopped in 2005 because of low rates of TB in the general population.
Professor John Campbell, of the University of Exeter Medical School, said: "Covid-19 has killed more than a million people globally, with well over 33 million people acquiring the disease, sometimes in its severest forms.
"BCG has been shown to boost immunity in a generalised way, which may offer some protection against Covid-19.
"We're excited to be contributing to the large-scale, international study where we are seeking to establish whether the BCG vaccine could help protect people who are at risk of Covid-19.
"If it does, we could save lives by administering or topping up this readily available and cost-effective vaccination."
Previous studies suggest that the BCG vaccine could reduce susceptibility to a range of infections caused by viruses including those similar to the novel coronavirus causing Covid-19.
