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September 13, 2002
U.S. IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"New Vaccines for the Prevention of Tuberculosis"
Clinical Infectious Diseases
(www.journals.uchicago.edu/CID/home.html) (08/15/02) Vol. 35, No. 4, P. 465; von Reyn, C. Fordham; Vuola, Jenni M.
While Mycobacterium bovis, or bacille Calmette-Guerin, has been administered to newborns for generations for the prevention of childhood tuberculosis, its effectiveness as a preventative against reactivation pulmonary disease or HIV-associated tuberculosis is minimal. A number of promising candidates for a more effective tuberculosis have been created and some are in development, but the lack of a preventive for such a wide range of pulmonary diseases highlights the importance of discovering such a vaccine quickly. Researchers are studying a variety of vaccine techniques, including using attenuated or enhanced whole-cell live vaccines, whole-cell inactivated products, and subunit, DNA, and prime-boost vaccines. A few have even demonstrated effectiveness into animal trials, but such a vaccine will take years to reach the market. The delay will be due to the fact that there has been no marker found to identify immunity against tuberculosis. As a result, any truly effective vaccine will require going through years of testing and follow-up data gathering to determine its effectiveness in preventing tuberculosis in patients.
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