Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis vaccine could save half of cases The final analysis of a promising clinical trial of a vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) shows it keeps the infection dormant about half the time. After three years, a trial involving more than 3,500 HIV-negative adults with latent TB found only 13 developed active TB, compared to 26 who received a placebo. That might not sound impressive compared to vaccines like the one for measles, which is about 98% protective. But TB is the world’s most deadly infectious killer, and the current prevention method involves taking a lot of antibiotics. The New York Times | 6 min readReference: The New England Journal of Medicine paper

25% Proportion of the world’s population infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.