New vaccine targeting adults, teens could eliminate TB by 2050

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Stop TB Department at the World Health Organization found that a vaccine given to adolescents and adults in low- and middle-income countries could have a much larger impact on the burden of TB worldwide and is more likely to be cost-effective, even if the vaccine has low efficacy and short duration or carries a high price. The contagious bacterial infection mostly affects young adults and kills more than one million people every year, 95 percent of whom are in low- and middle-income countries. The World Health Organization has set the goal of eliminating TB by the year 2050. “Dramatic levels of control are needed to eliminate TB and new vaccines need to be developed now,” said Gwen Knight, lead author and research fellow in infectious disease modeling. “But because trials of TB vaccines are hugely expensive, their development needs very...