Tuberculosis researchers find link between vaccine efficacy, environmental pathogens

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease of the lungs that’s been with humanity for centuries and affects a quarter of the world’s population. The stubborn disease killed over a million and a half people in 2021, mostly in lower- and middle- income countries where access to basic resources is scarce. Researchers at Colorado State University (CSU) are among the foremost experts on Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of the disease, and have for many years been dedicated to understanding its underlying immunopathology as well as finding new ways to prevent or treat it. Now, CSU researchers have uncovered an intriguing link between the efficacy of the world’s only licensed tuberculosis vaccine, and the environmental pathogens that people all over the world live with every day. The most widely used vaccine against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, called Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG), is administered regularly in parts of the world where the disease is a common threat, but its...