ICMR working on developing vaccine to eliminate TB
In order to manage and control the disease of Tuberculosis in the country, work is being done on a new vaccine after 100 years in the country. To meet India’s goal of eliminating this disease by the year 2025, scientists of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have involved about 12,000 people for the third phase study of two potential vaccines. The researchers wanted to see how effective the vaccine would be in preventing the disease in adult members of the household of a person with TB. The people involved will be monitored for three years from seven different locations in India before they are approved for use as potential vaccines commercially or under the National TB Programme.
According to the English newspaper Hindustan Times, one of the scientists said on the condition of anonymity, ‘It was a big challenge for us to include people in the study of this vaccine in the middle of the pandemic, because we had to keep healthy people in such a house where there was a TB patient. Along with this, we also had to persuade them to come to the DOTS centers for vaccination.
The researcher said, ‘Initial results in Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutics may start coming within months, but TB is a long disease and we have to wait a long time for people involved in the vaccine process to arrive at any results. Will have to keep a watch till now.’
Work on these vaccines
One of the vaccines being tested to prevent lung TB is Immuvac, which was designed to prevent leprosy. Immuvac, also known as Mycobacterium indicus pranii, works in a similar way against leprosy and tuberculosis bacteria.
While the second vaccine is VPM1002, it is a recombinant BCG which is a widely used vaccine in the world. In a new vaccine developed in Germany, the genetic code of BCG has been edited in such a way that TB antigens are better matched. With the help of this the immune system is trained to fight TB better.
