The Danish researchers have developed a new vaccine which can combat tuberculosis before and after the infection. The new vaccine could proffer protection for many years more than that is possible now. TB is an ailment of lungs and can cause symptoms like coughing, chest pain and weigh loss.
If left untreated, it can be fatal. It is a worldwide problem, especially in developing countries in which reach to antibiotics to treat the condition is restricted. However, only in a small number of cases say about fewer than five percent the symptoms develop instantly after infection.
The new vaccine developed by research team from the Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen, it unites proteins which activate immune reaction to the active and dormant types of Mycobacterium. It might be possible to administer a booster jab post exposure to grown-up kids or to young adults that would protect them in adulthood, explained lead researcher Prof Peter Lawætz Andersen.
In more than ninety percent of cases, once Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium which causes the disease, has invaded the body it alters its chemical signature and lives in a dormant state. Typically the bacterium never appears from this latent state, but in around ten percent of cases it reactivates often years later to arouse severe symptoms.
However, once the bacterium has altered into its latent form it is effectively immune to the vaccine and can bide its time, reactivating after the vaccine has ceased to have a preventative effect. The existing vaccine like BCG, works only if administered before exposure to the bacterium. It prevents acute symptoms and disease from emerging.
Even though TB can be treated with antibiotics but such drugs are not frequently reachable in the developing countries, where the new vaccine could have the utmost benefit. In such areas one cannot go in and treat more than half the people, added Prof Andersen.
A vaccine that could protect against preliminary infection and protect from a breakdown of infection into disease is a major breakthrough. One of the main drawbacks of BCG was that it could only thwart infection going on to ailment in the initially uninfected people, explained Prof Peter Davies, secretary of the group TB Alert.