New vaccine for TB

There were just under 6,800 TB cases in England and Wales last year

Scientists are working on a new tuberculosis vaccine which would work in tandem with the existing BCG jab.

It is hoped that using the two vaccines in combination could save millions of lives.

An Oxford team is recruiting volunteers for a trial of the new vaccine, known as MVA85A - the first trial of a new vaccine against TB in humans for 80 years.

The team are looking for people who have never had the BCG vaccine to test the effectiveness of this new jab.

We have the chance of giving many more people protection and hopefully saving lots of lives

Dr Helen McShane, John Radcliffe Hospital

TB usually attacks the lungs and can be passed on by coughing or spitting.

It is becoming more common because of drug resistance and the spread of HIV.

TB, thought to have been around since the time of the pharaohs, kills around 2m people worldwide every year.

According to the World Health Organization, it could kill 35m in the next 20 years if new controls are not introduced.

The number of recorded TB cases in England and Wales rose from 5,085 in 1987 to 6,797 last year, according to the Public Health Laboratory Service.

Boost

BCG, first introduced in 1921, gives good protection to children.

Dr Helen McShane: says the new vaccine is 'exciting and important'

But its effects wear off after about 10 years, and people are vulnerable to the TB bacteria, present in about a third of the world's population.

BCG creates a small immune response in disease-killing T-cells.

The new vaccine works by asking the cells to "remember" the first BCG vaccine and to create a bigger barrier to TB.

Both vaccines contain the same antigen, a substance that creates an immune response.

'Better protection' chance

The £690,000 six-year study, funded by the Wellcome Trust, is being carried out by a team from the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Dr Helen McShane, who is leading the research, said: "Because BCG is often not effective, especially among adults and in some parts of the developing world, we have the chance of giving many more people protection and hopefully saving lots of lives."

Dr McShane, who has been given a clinician scientist fellowship by the Wellcome Trust, said it was not yet clear how the new vaccine would fit in with the BCG.

She said: "It may be that we have to give them in combination or it might be better to give people the two vaccines several years apart.

"The aim of MVA85A is to give BCG a boost, not to replace it. That is probably not feasible.

Oxford has been selected as the centre for the trials because routine BCG vaccinations stopped there in 1981 because TB was on the decline.

Parallel trials will take place in Africa, where TB is more common.