Source: Thailand Medical News Oct 30, 2019 5 years, 2 weeks, 1 day, 5 hours, 55 minutes ago
Researchers from
GlaxoSmithKline (
GSK) said that they are closing in on a new game-changing
vaccine for
tuberculosis, the world's deadliest infectious disease that claimed some 1.8 million lives last year.
The existing Bacille-Calmette-Guerin (BCG)
vaccine licensed for humans in 1921 is only proven to be effective for children under five for limited forms of
tuberculosis. It does not protect against pulmonary
TB, the most common form of the
disease amongst adults and teens.
In a trial in three African nations,
GlaxoSmithKline said its
vaccine had 50 percent effectiveness three years after it was given to participants who already have
TB bacteria but have not fallen ill from the disease.
GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines' chief medical officer Thomas Breuer commented to
Thailand Medical News in a phone interview "These results demonstrate that for the first time in almost a century, the global community potentially has a new tool to help provide protection against
Tuberculosis.
Anti
TB Campaigners said the trial in Kenya, South Africa and Zambia, involving more than 3,000 adults, was a crucial step amid a push for more funding for TB research. South African
Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative director Mark Hatherill said a vaccine would be "the only way in the short-term to interrupt
TB transmission and get control of the epidemic."
Dr Ann Ginsberg, of the International AIDS
Vaccine Initiative which has been taking part in the research, said 15 possible
vaccines are at various stages of development around the world but this was the most "exciting". If successful, the
vaccine could "avert tens of millions of new cases of
TB and save millions of lives gl
obally."
Dr Paula Fujiwara, scientific director of the Paris-based International Union Against
Tuberculosis and Lung Disease commented, "We are one more cautious, but exciting, step closer to a
vaccine for
tuberculosis. The results have to be further tested in longer and larger trials across broader ranges of populations and countries, the scientists”
GSK said it would take several years to complete the trials and get a licence for a
vaccine.
One in four people worldwide carry latent
TB, meaning they are infected with the bacteria but are not sick and cannot transmit the disease. Between five to 15 percent develop active
TB. Those with compromised immune systems such as people with HIV are more vulnerable to falling sick.
Of late, there has been a surge in the number of
Tuberculosis cases coupled with more cases of drug resistant and extremely drug resistant (XDR) strains emerging all around the world.
Reference: Dereck R. Tait et al. Final Analysis of a Trial of M72/AS01E Vaccine to Prevent Tuberculosis,
New England Journal of Medicine (2019).
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1909953 
