Trial TB vaccine promises longer cover

For the first time in 80 years a tuberculosis vaccine has reached the stage of patient trials in Britain.

If successful, the vaccine could save millions of lives around the world.

A team led by Dr Helen McShane, at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, is recruiting volunteers willing to be given the vaccine, known as MVA85A.

The Wellcome Trust, Britain's biggest research charity, is paying for the £690,000 ($2.39 million) six-year study and has awarded Dr McShane a Clinician Scientist Fellowship.

TB, which has been around since the time of the Pharaohs, kills two million people each year.

The World Health Organisation estimates that in the next two decades it will claim 35 million lives if new controls are not introduced.

The new vaccine is intended to be used in tandem with BCG, the existing TB vaccine first introduced in 1921.

BCG provides good protection for children, but after about 10 years its effectiveness wears off.

"It's important and very exciting to be involved in something like this, especially as it has been such a long time since the last vaccine was brought out," Dr McShane said.

"We're not sure yet how the new one will fit in alongside BCG.

"It may be that we have to give them in combination or it might be better to give people the two vaccines several years apart. We will obviously know more once the trials get under way.

"The aim of MVA85A is to give BCG a boost, not to replace it. That is probably not feasible.

"However, because BCG is often not effective, especially among adults and in some parts of the developing world, we have the chance of giving many more people protection and hopefully saving lots of lives."

Oxford is seen as an ideal place to start the trials since routine BCG vaccinations for schoolchildren stopped there in 1981 when TB was on the decline.

Parallel trials will take place in Africa, where TB is more common.

- NZPA

nzherald.co.nz/health