AFP, Hyderabad :
Scientists said Tuesday they are closing in on a new game-changing vaccine for tuberculosis, the world’s deadliest infectious disease that claimed some 1.5 million lives last year.
A chronic lung disease that is curable, TB was one of the top 10 killers worldwide last year, particularly in developing countries.
The existing Bacille-Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine – licensed for humans in 1921 – is only proven to be effective for children under five for limited forms of tuberculosis.
It does not protect against pulmonary TB, the most common form of the disease amongst adults and teens.
In a trial in three African nations, GlaxoSmithKline said its vaccine had 50 percent effectiveness three years after it was given to participants who already have TB bacteria but have not fallen ill from the disease.
“These results demonstrate that for the first time in almost a century, the global community potentially has a new tool to help provide protection against TB,” GSK Vaccines’ chief medical officer Thomas Breuer said in a statement released at a conference on lung health in Hyderabad, India.
Campaigners said the trial in Kenya, South Africa and Zambia, involving more than 3,000 adults, was a crucial step amid a push for more funding for TB research.
