Marcus Horwitz, a California researcher, developed a new vaccine designed to promote the production of specific bacterial proteins. These proteins have protected mice from certain diseases, such as TB, in laboratory tests.
It has been almost 80 years since a vaccine for tuberculosis bacterium has been tested. Human are the target of this latest wave of testing, scheduled for the end of the year.
Last year the US reported 16,000 cases of TB, half of which occur in people born in other countries. The disease, which kills 2 million people worldwide, has sparked a surge of scientific and international funding to create vaccines to defend against it. Vaccines become dated because bacterial strains of TB develop a resistance to them, making it necessary to continue to create new drugs and vaccines.
TB may remain dormant in the lungs for years, maybe even a lifetime. Infection occurs in about 5-10% of those carrying the bacteria. Symptoms, which include fever, night sweats and coughing, can be transmitted and infect others. If you have active TB, it is necessary to take medication for 6-9 months in order to stop the progress of the disease. The World Health Organization leads a program called DOTS (directly observed treatment, short-course) to make sure victims of TB are taking their medication regularly. This will increase the cure rate and prevent the bacteria from developing resistance to the vaccine.
Washington Post June 4, 2002; Page A08
Without all the facts, I understand jumping on the band wagon of an approach that could prevent the death of two million people per year worldwide. But, what the story fails to tell us is that, over one-third of the world's population is infected with TB. It actually affects over two billion people, meaning one in every thousand infected will die from the disease.
Clearly there are factors beyond some big, bad, scary mycobacteria. It is also one's immune system in relation to the fundamental improvements promoted in my newsletter every day . For this reason, an effective vaccine program is beyond my imagination. We could reduce the need for such vaccinations by simply adopting a healthier lifestyle.
However, there is a lot of money at stake. The drug's manufacturer, one of the wealthiest corporstions in the world, stands to make billions of dollars because the potential market is so large. At least half of the world, perhaps even the entire population of the planet, would be targeted for this vaccine in an effort to rid the world of TB - just like they did with smallpox. But, don't let them convince you. Prior to the 9/11 smallpox bioterrorism effort, the last reported case of smallpox was in Somalia in 1978.
Now, you need to pay attention to the word "reported". There is a different disease in Africa that is essentially smallpox, but it has been renamed "monkeypox". It is alive and well and, according to ABC News, spreading in Central Africa. Basically, smallpox was never really eliminated, just renamed.
We all have enough to worry about with the Smallpox vaccine, but I have to give people a big heads up on the likely TB vaccine.