Unlike the current vaccine, which is not very effective, a new vaccine is hoped to be the long term answer to the deadly disease, which is TB. It has been tested on over 3500 adults after successfully clearing an important phase of clinical trials. Even with this success, it will take a few years get the license. The vaccine is fabricated from the protein of the TB bacteria that triggers an immune response said researchers from around the world who attended the global summit on lung health, held in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
Game changing vaccine
According to the TB expert David Lewinsohn, the disease Causing agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis would be offering some level of protection to the victim as not all individuals that have the bacteria are victims of TB. This vaccine will give early indicators of the intended result and is designed to test safety. More trials are yet to be done on a larger scale before it is licensed, which if successful will surely revolutionaries TB treatment, said the TB expert.
The vaccine should be the market by around 2028 if it all goes well, said Dr Lewinsohn. In order to prove the success of the vaccine there should be trials that are conducted at a larger scale and should be effective on animals as well.
Current world situation
Latent Tb has effected almost one-fourth of the world’s population. Even though there is a 5 to 10 % chance of it changing to active TB, this doesn’t spread in its latent state. On the other hand MDR-TB (Multi Drug Resistant TB) is extremely hard to diagnose and expensive to treat. The objective of the WHO is to lessen the newer TB cases by 90% and reduce the TB deaths by 95% between 2015 and 2035.
The most affected country being India at a 27%, along with china at 9%, Indonesia at 8%, the Philippines at 6% Pakistan at 6% Nigeria at 4% Bangladesh at 4% and south Africa at 3% respectively. According to Jamhoih Tonsing, the Director of the international Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Office, Delhi, the disease has to be cleared from India, in order to eliminate it globally.
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