A new medical trial seeks to understand whether a second BCG vaccine will help fight off tuberculosis – and volunteers are needed
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For many people in developed nations, tuberculosis (TB) is something of a forgotten illness, but TB is the world’s biggest infectious killer. Caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, TB is spread through the air when people carrying the bacteria cough, sneeze or spit. It only takes a few germs for someone to be infected. The bacteria normally affect the lungs, and every year, around 10 million people worldwide fall ill with TB, with some 1.5 million of them dying – despite TB being a preventable and curable disease.
Although it’s most common in certain Asian countries (notably the Indian sub-continent) as well as parts of Africa, it’s present all over the world, and an astonishing quarter of the world’s population is thought to be infected with the TB bacteria. However, the large majority of those infected will not actually go on to develop the disease itself.
The BCG vaccine, which protects against severe TB infections, used to be given as a standard to school children in the UK. The vaccine was given in the upper arm and left a small scar. In 2005, the giving of a BCG vaccine at school was discontinued as it was deemed unnecessary because the age group it was being given to was considered at least risk of developing TB and because rates overall were falling across Europe. However, cases of TB are now once again rising in the UK and other developed nations. The UK government has announced that in the first half of 2023, TB cases rose by seven per cent compared to the same period in 2022.
Now, the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford has started to conduct a new study to investigate whether giving a second BCG vaccine will stimulate a stronger immune response. The team behind the study are also interested in finding out if giving the second vaccine orally is more effective than a standard injection in the arm.
Sufferers of type 2 diabetes are also more likely to get TB, so the researchers will also be looking at whether a second vaccine given either orally or by injection reduces the TB risk to type 2 diabetes sufferers.
Researchers from the Jenner Institute are looking for volunteers who have already had a first BCG jab to participate in the trial. To find out more see here.
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