A new study found that an experimental vaccine for tuberculosis (TB), an airborne infectious disease that killed 1.7 million people in 2016, provided 54% protection against active TB disease in adults.
A September 26, 2018 Healio article described the study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, and an accompanying editorial by Barry Bloom, the Joan L. and Julius H. Jacobson Research Professor of Public Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Bloom wrote in the editorial, “There has been widespread skepticism in the scientific community that an effective tuberculosis vaccine would be technically feasible and in industry that it can be economically viable.”
Bloom, who was not involved with the study, said that while additional research is needed, the new findings represent an important step forward toward developing an effective immunization against TB. “The results reinforce the importance of international collaborations, set the stage for testing additional candidates, and offer renewed hope that effective new vaccines can be developed for tuberculosis,” he wrote.
Read the Healio article: Vaccine provides 54% protection against active TB in phase 2b trial