Tuberculosis (TB) is a contagious disease that generally affects the lungs, but also affects other parts of the body. Prevention of TB involves screening those at high risk, treatment of cases and early detection. TB is the leading cause of death worldwide despite the bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine. However, people who are already exposed to the disease are required to go through multiple antibiotic treatments over a long period of time.

More than Just Numbers

In 2023, 1.3 million people died from TB. In 2022, 10.6 million people fell ill with TB. This is a disease that has claimed countless lives and will not stop unless someone discovers a proper vaccine, and soon. As more time passes, TB becomes more resistant to the vaccines that doctors already use.

This large death toll from TB is not only due to infection, it is also due in part to the large population living with HIV as well. Of those 1.3 million who died of TB, 167,000 of those people were diagnosed with HIV. TB is also the leading cause of death among people with HIV and a major cause of antimicrobial resistance-related deaths.

Progress

Preventing the TB disease, rather than the infection, has been the main target for vaccine development. Development of an effective TB vaccine is a top global priority that many scientists have been working on for decades.

It is because of this that the paediatrician and researcher in Johannesburg, South Africa, Dr Lee Fairlie, has made it her mission to help the people in need. She has seen more than her fair share of TB-related deaths over the course of her career, mostly because of the large population of those with HIV that live in South Africa.

Though the search for a TB vaccine has been slow, researchers are making progress nonetheless. Dr. Fairlie has made it her mission not to give up, and now, she and her colleagues may be on the verge of a breakthrough.

A New Vaccine and Hope for the Future

Her team is one of the sites conducting a landmark M72/AS01E TB vaccine trial, with the help of Gates Medical Research Institute and funded by the Gates Foundation and Wellcome, which includes sites across four African countries (including South Africa) and Indonesia. At first, GSK developed it in collaboration from Aeras and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. M72 could possibly be the first new TB vaccine in more than a century and the first-ever to help protect adults and adolescents from the disease.

While the clinical trial is still in its early stages, M72’s initial reports have filled the team with hope. M72 reportedly had a near 50% efficacy after three years in preventing TB-infected adults from developing active disease, which would make them both sick and contagious to others.

While the results are years away, Dr. Fairlie is hopeful for the future, as this could be a step further towards a world without TB.

– Avery Carl

Avery is based in Scottsbluff, NE, USA and focuses on Good News and Global Health for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Flickr