New TB drugs, diagnosis tools, vaccine by 2012

FE Team | Published: November 10, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

CAPE TOWN (South Africa), Nov 9 (BSS): Three global not-for-profit organisations have claimed to offer a new vaccine, drugs and diagnosis tools to the world community in the next five years to contain tuberculosis (TB) that kills one person in every 20 seconds globally.
The Western-based philanthropic organisations, who joined hands early this century to fight TB effectively, announced recently that together they would be able to shorten TB treatment period to four months from existing six months, develop high efficacy vaccine and effective drugs for normal and drug resistant TB.
"The present BCG vaccine, diagnostic facilities as well as the first and second line drugs have become truly outdated and they are going to be replaced in coming years by new ones," CEO and President of Global TB Alliance Dr Maria C Freire said at the beginning of the five-day world congress on tuberculosis and lung diseases here.
International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD), a France-based charity, has organised the congress attracting more than 3,000 people from all over the world, especially from countries at high risk of TB.
According to AERAS, a co-partner of TB Alliance, the existing TB vaccine developed for children, has been proved little effective for children of all ages and is not effective for adults at all.
The organisation is optimistic to develop a vaccine of higher efficacy within 2012-14 and would significantly cut TB-related deaths from existing 1.6 million round the year.
"We need a vaccine that would protect children and adults both," CEO and President of AERAS Dr Jerald C Sadoff told journalists at a press conference, adding his organisation has already started the first phase of clinical trials of three potential vaccines to find final one. The first phase of the trial is going on in South Africa, India, Kenya, Uganda and Cambodia over few thousand people.
"The initial result of the vaccines has every indication that we would be successful to find an effective vaccine by the year 2014," he said.
Dr Jerald, however, said the programme needs to be supported by the governments in a greater way because the initiative needs two billion US dollars.
Modern diagnosis tools, which mark one of top priorities in different sessions of the congress, had been assured to make available ahead of 2011 with one-stop test facilities for TB, HIV, malaria and sleeping sickness (apnea).
The new molecular microscopic tests will be made available at local levels so that the people could reach easily and seek tests at cheaper rates than existing one, said Dr Giorgio Roscigno, President and CEO of FIND.
The Japanese microscope would help achieve sensitivity test results up to 95 per cent from 60, said the executive of FIND.
The organisation has been trying to improve diagnostic tools to fight TB that also claimed 70,000 lives a year in Bangladesh, now ranking fifth among 22 high-burden countries of the infectious disease.
"We will never defeat TB without new and more affective tools that will be simpler, faster, affordable, available and act on all forms of TB," Dr Giorgio told journalists at the spectacular Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), adjacent to famous Cape Harbour. He also said the new diagnostic technology will also help in quick identification of malaria and sleeping apnea.
Dr Maria C Freire of TB Alliance announced that her organisation was going to discover at least one drug- Moxifloxacine-in next four years and it would cut down TB treatment time by two months from existing six months.
She said the trial of a drug has shown very positive results and expected to prevent multi-drug resistance (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB alongside the normal TB.
Among the number, 8.8 million develop active TB, which was transmitted by air from sneezes and cough and spitting from active TB patients.
The WHO has set a target to bring TB under control by 2015 and eliminate it by 2050.