TORONTO – Canadian scientists say they’ve developed a vaccine for tuberculosis that could lead the way to ending the global fight against the virus with strains that have grown resistant to drugs.
McMaster University doctors in Hamilton, Ont., say they’re the first in the world to develop the treatment, which is based on a genetically-modified cold virus.
“Tuberculosis is a serious public health threat. One-third of the world’s population is infected with the organism that causes tuberculosis, and it remains the top infectious killer of people only secondary to HIV; yet the current vaccine used to prevent it is ineffective,” McMaster’s Dr. Fiona Smaill said in a news release.
She’s the chair of the department of pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster’s DeGroote School of Medicine.
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The vaccine is meant to act as a booster to the only TB vaccine that’s currently available – it’s called Bacille Calmette Guerin or BCG. That treatment was developed in the 1920s and is part of the World Health Organization’s immunization program in countries around the world.
Nunavut also uses BCG – it’s the only Canadian jurisdiction where the vaccine is routinely doled out because of high rates of TB in the territory.
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The BCG vaccine is typically given within the first year of a baby’s life. In the past few decades, health officials have been grappling with taming TB cases as multi-drug resistant strains have popped up.
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The McMaster-developed therapy would follow up the BCG vaccine, acting as a booster to reactivate immunity.
In 2009, the researchers began their first human clinical trial on 24 healthy volunteers, 12 who were already BCG-immunized.
“The primary goal was to look at the safety of a single dose vaccine injection,” Dr. Zhou Xing said. The vaccine was developed in Xing’s lab.
By 2012, Xing’s lab determined the vaccine was safe and recorded an immune response in most trial participants. But the researchers say more clinical trials need to be conducted to measure the vaccine’s real potential.
On Wednesday, global health officials announced a new plan that aims to wipe out TB in children worldwide. The ambitious plan comes with a $120 million annual price tag, but it’s unclear if donors will invest in the project.
Read more: Experts aim to eliminate tuberculosis in children but aren’t sure how many are infected
The World Health Organization estimates that TB infects about 500,000 children each year and kills another 74,000.
It’s a bacterial disease that’s usually spread by coughing or sneezing. It’s also the second-leading killer among infectious diseases after AIDS.
carmen.chai@globalnews.ca
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