New TB Vaccine Shows Promise
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Printed Date: April 25 2024 at 9:25am
Topic: New TB Vaccine Shows Promise
Posted By: Technophobe
Subject: New TB Vaccine Shows Promise
Date Posted: October 30 2019 at 2:48am
An experimental vaccine proved 50 percent effective at preventing latent tuberculosis infection from turning into active disease in a three-year study of adults in Africa.
Doctors were encouraged because protection declined only a little after two years, and even a partially effective vaccine would be a big help against TB. The lung disease kills more than a million people a year, mostly in poor countries, and about one-third of the world's people harbor the bacteria that cause it.
Results were reported Tuesday at a conference in India, the country hardest hit by TB, and published by the New England Journal of Medicine.
This 1966 image made available by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention shows a chest x-ray of a tuberculosis patient.
This 1966 image made available by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention shows a chest x-ray of a tuberculosis patient. (CDC via AP)
There is a TB vaccine now, but it's given only to very young children and partly prevents severe complications. Researchers have been seeking a vaccine that also works in adults, to curb spread of the disease.
GlaxoSmithKline's experimental vaccine was tested in nearly 3,600 adults in Kenya, South Africa and Zambia who were infected with TB but who did not also have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Half were given two doses of vaccine a month apart and the rest got dummy shots. Thirteen people in the vaccine group and 26 in the other group developed active TB.
The new results show that "the vaccine is holding up" over time, and mark an important step toward having a prevention tool that's been sought for 100 years, said Dr. Paula Fujiwara, scientific director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, the group hosting the conference in Hyderabad, India.
Plans are underway for another, definitive study, which will take at least several more years, she said.
After two-year results were announced last year, the World Health Organization called the vaccine a major breakthrough and has been holding meetings to discuss how to further its development.
Source: https://www.foxnews.com/health/vaccine-shows-promise-for-preventing-active-tb-disease - https://www.foxnews.com/health/vaccine-shows-promise-for-preventing-active-tb-disease
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Replies:
Posted By: EdwinSm,
Date Posted: October 30 2019 at 11:56pm
A vaccine would be great.
TB is one of the diseases where drug resistance is growing, so better to prevent it than have something that is hard to cure.
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Posted By: Technophobe
Date Posted: October 31 2019 at 6:12am
Yes it is a horror!
TB is also a snob. It usually kills the poor. It waits for those whose immune system is weakened (HIV, stress, malnutrition, poor housing, cancer, post-viral debilitation, etc) before emerging to slowly and cruelly, torture, ostracise and eventually kill.
Also, as it is only successfully treatable with polytherapy (several drugs at once) over extended periods (six months to two years usually) treatments are less available to poorer people.
It is not all bad news though. Sanofi has just slashed the price it charges for one of the rifampicin family (which stops the TB from breeding, buying the treatment programme time while other antibiotics kill it off) by 2/3. Rifapentine has now dropped from $45 to $15 for 100 poor nations struggling with the disease.
Globally, the fight goes on.
Source and full article: https://www.france24.com/en/20191031-tb-drug-price-slashed-in-global-push-to-thwart-killer-disease - https://www.france24.com/en/20191031-tb-drug-price-slashed-in-global-push-to-thwart-killer-disease
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