New Tuberculosis Vaccine Shows Promise
An experimental new vaccine developed to combat tuberculosis has shown a 50 percent success rate The New York Times reports. While this may seem like nothing to celebrate, with more than 10 million new cases of tuberculosis each year and 1.6 million deaths, researchers, both those involved with the vaccine’s development and those who were not, are enthusiastic about the vaccine.
The new vaccine, developed by GSK, was tested in about 3,300 adults in Kenya, South Africa, and Zambia, all of who already had latent tuberculosis (a silent infection that may or may not progress to active tuberculosis). Of those who received the vaccine, only 13 developed active tuberculosis. Of those who received the placebo, 26 developed active tuberculosis.
Unlike current prevention practices, which require patients taking protective antibiotics every day for a month, two shots are given one month apart, greatly simplifying the process. Also, by not using antibiotics, the risk of antibiotic-resistant TB developing is greatly diminished.
Read more in The New York Times and read the full study in The New England Journal of Medicine.
