The Travel Doctor
Traveller's medical & vaccination centre
News Articles
Encouraging results from TB Vaccine trial
Press the Back button to return to the Travel Doctor homepage.
In Tanzania the trial of a new vaccine against tuberculosis provides great hope that we may soon have an effective weapon against this scourge which is of grave concern world-wide against a background of malnutrition and HIV/AIDS and the emergence and spread of drug-resistant strains. The century old BCG “vaccine” has provided some protection, particularly for babies, but has proved ineffective on a large scale. However, very encouraging results come from the “DarDar” trial conducted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania by Dartmouth Medical School (USA), and Tanzania's Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, published in January. Two thousand and thirteen HIV-infected out-patients were involved in the trial whereby half (1006) were given the vaccine and half (1007) received placebo injection. After a median 3.3 years the trial was terminated when it appeared that significant protection was being provided to the vaccinated group. Investigators are now working with a pharmaceutical company to develop a form of the vaccine that could be mass produced. There are other experimental vaccines currently on trial so there is a distinct possibility that the TB “epidemic” in Africa will be controlled in the near future.
