Clinical Trial For New Tuberculosis Vaccine

[amyrose2712]

ScienceDaily (Sep. 12, 2008) — With annually 2 million deaths and 9 million new cases, there are more victims of tuberculosis than of any other infectious disease, apart from AIDS. To make the situation worse, many strains of tuberculosis are so resistant that they no longer respond to traditional treatment, making the necessity of a new tuberculosis vaccine more urgent than ever.
For the first time in 80 years, a very promising live tuberculosis vaccine has reached the clinical trial stage in Germany.

Since Monday of this week, the new vaccine "VPM1002" has entered the clinical phase I trial in Neuss, Germany, where it is being tested for safety on voluntary subjects. VPM1002 is based on a vaccine that has been in use since 1921, and has been genetically engineered to prevent infection with tuberculosis bacteria much more effectively than its predecessor.



http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080911103912.htm


(I work in a Pulmonary office and I see a lot more TB then I ever realized. Mostly people that have been out of the country)

[oldsneakers]

1. Someone in my office

was diagnosed with TB last month

[TZ]

2. Good news.

TB, malaria, and AIDS are the big three of infectious diseases. Like malaria, one of the challenges with treating TB is the rapid resistance to drugs. (I worked on experiemental malaria vaccines for awhile).
Keeping my fingers crossed on this one.