World’s New TB Vaccine after two year research unveiled

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) which has been planning on holding the first level meeting on TB, announced the new TB vaccine.

There has been a two-year research done in Kenya, Zambia and South Africa on the TB vaccine. The vaccine which was done in a population of 3,500 has 54 per cent efficiency as per the phrase 2b results that were developed.

From the research, HIV and TB were not important for the study because very few people had HIV. Progress from latent to active TB is also caused by poor nutrition.

The new tuberculosis vaccine is meant for adult patients who have latent TB which has been developed by scientists to prevent progression to active TB. The vaccine was developed by Aeras in occurrence with the GSK.

In a briefing in New York, Dr Ann Ginsberg a chief medical officer Aeras said that the vaccine has appeared to be safe despite the injection reaction and the flu-like symptoms that tend to last for three to four days.

Since 1921, BCG (Bacille Calmette Guerin) was the only licensed tuberculosis vaccine which did not offer protection against pulmonary tuberculosis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis in adults.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a bacteria that causes TB which is said to be within a quarter of the world’s population.

In 2016, there were 10.4 million cases of tuberculosis and 1.7 million deaths. Dr Ginsberg explains that the vaccine is targeted to tuberculosis patients between ages 18 to 50. This is because the infection tends to stay in the lungs then develop to an active TB.

In a study that was published in the New England Journal, there are 10 cases of active pulmonary tuberculosis and 22 cases of placebo that were recorded.

The Deputy Executive Director of Stop TB Partnership Secretariat, Sahu Suvanand said that that back in the 90’s TB was declared to be a global health emergency and till to date not much has changed.