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June 5, 2002
U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"New TB Vaccine Will Begin Tests by End of Year"
Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com) (06/04/02) P. A8; Okie, Susan
Medical experts believe that a new tuberculosis (TB) vaccine in humans will undergo initial testing by the end of 2002, marking the first time in 80 years that a new TB vaccine will be tested. The new vaccine is an improved version of BCG, a partially-effective TB vaccine that was first introduced in the 1920s. In recent times, bacterial strains of TB that resist treatment with current drugs have become more and more common, making the development of new vaccines and drugs vital to controlling the disease, which takes the lives of 2 million people a year. As a result, according to researchers and health officials speaking at the recent Fourth World Congress on Tuberculosis, there has been a resurgence of international funding and scientific effort to combat the disease over the last 10 years. For example, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is currently funding efforts to develop new tests, drugs and vaccines for TB, while Kenneth Castro of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says approximately one-sixth of the money from the new Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria as been allocated to the treatment and detection of TB. Douglas Young of London's Imperial College says the recent decoding of the genetic sequence of the TB bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, represents a significant breakthrough that could lead to the development of new vaccines and drugs.
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