The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has announced the launch of a new Tuberculosis Vaccine Accelerator Council following the example of COVID-19, when a fully developed vaccine was successfully developed. new in just one year.
As Tedros highlighted during the conference ‘End tuberculosis: how to achieve it?’, held this Tuesday as part of the activities of the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland), this council will facilitate the authorization and use of new vaccines against tuberculosis, “accelerating coordination between funders, world organizations, governments and patients to identify and overcome obstacles to tuberculosis vaccine development.
“One of the most important lessons from the response to the COVID-19 pandemic is that innovative health interventions can be carried out quickly if they are given political priority and are adequately financed. The challenges posed by TB and COVID-19 are different, but the ingredients that accelerate science, research and innovation are the same: urgent and early public investment, support from philanthropy, and engagement from the private sector and communities. We believe the TB field will benefit from similar high-level coordination,” Tedros said.
Authorization of a new vaccine
No new tuberculosis vaccine has been licensed in 100 years. In fact, BCG is currently the only licensed vaccine against the disease. Although it is moderately effective in preventing severe forms of tuberculosis in infants and young children, it does not adequately protect adolescents and adults, who account for about 90 percent of cases worldwide.
However, the prospects for new effective vaccines against tuberculosis have improved in recent years, with at least 16 vaccine candidates under developmentjust as Tedros has recalled.
The top leader of the WHO has affirmed that many of the vaccines against tuberculosis under investigation were already candidates before the pandemic, but that “the whole world was focused on finding a vaccine against COVID-19, so its acceleration was accelerated.” development, while some types of tuberculosis have been developing for decades.
For this reason, Tedros has called for “a renewed commitment and a sense of urgency” to accelerate the vaccine against tuberculosis. “It can be developed. If it was done for COVID-19, it is clear that it can also be for tuberculosis. If we use the lessons from COVID-19, it is possible,” he insisted.
The vaccine would “change the rules of the game” but it is not enough
A study commissioned by the WHO in December 2022 estimated that, in 25 years, a vaccine with 50 percent efficacy in preventing tuberculosis among adolescents and adults could avert up to 76 million new cases, 8.5 million deaths42 million antibiotic treatments and 6,500 million dollars (6,023 million euros) in costs for households affected by tuberculosis, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable.
In the event that its effectiveness were 75 percent, up to 110 million new cases of tuberculosis and 12.3 million deaths could be avoided. The study further suggests that every euro invested in a vaccine with 50 percent efficacy could generate an economic return of €6 in terms of avoided healthcare costs and increased productivity.
Both India’s Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Philippine Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo have agreed that the tuberculosis vaccine could be a “game changer.” “Like Vaccines changed the rules of the game
in the fight against COVID-19, We advocate approving a new TB vaccine by 2025 and making it available to adults and adolescents in TB-affected countries. India is fully prepared and at an advanced stage to take this forward,” Mandaviya said.
Along the same lines, the director of the Wellcome Trust organization, Jeremy Farrar, has defended that the tuberculosis vaccine “would change the rules of the game”, but has reiterated that they must be accompanied by other tools, such as diagnostic tests or health systems. “powerful”.
Farrar has assured that “for the first time” in his career he feels that this decade can bring “a real change” in the fight against tuberculosis, but he has urged not to wait for the vaccine. “We do not know when we are going to have it. Vaccines will change the rules of the game, but when they are integrated into a whole,” he added.
Tuberculosis, “the disease of the poor”
In 2021, more than 10 million people fell ill with tuberculosis. Despite being a preventable and curable disease, around 1.5 million people die from tuberculosis each year, making it the leading infectious cause of death in the world.
In its annual report, published in October, the WHO warned of a 4.5 percent increase in tuberculosis cases in 2021 compared to 2020, due to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. In all, a total of 10.6 million people fell ill and 1.6 million died (including 187,000 among those who were HIV-positive).
tuberculosis is caused by the bacterium ‘Mycobacterium tuberculosis’ and usually affects the lungs. It is spread through the air when people with pulmonary tuberculosis cough, sneeze, or spit. A person only needs to inhale a few germs to become infected.
tuberculosis is the leading cause of death among people with HIV and also one of the main causes of antimicrobial resistance.
Most people who get TB live in low- and middle-income countries, but it is present all over the world. Approximately half of the people with this disease are found in 8 countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and South Africa.
As a result of these data, Tedros has denounced that tuberculosis “is the disease of the poor”, while rich countries, where it is practically testimonial, do not dedicate enough resources or attention.
“It seems that it is not the problem of rich countries. It is a pattern that we have seen time and time again. In 2014, when Ebola entered the borders of rich countries, the whole world went crazy, with only one case. With COVID-19 it was the same reaction. When are we going to stop with this behavior? Tuberculosis has to be a global problem. The world should start helping all of humanity because we are one big family,” he argued.
In line, the executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Peter Sands, has charged rich countries for the little progress in the fight against this disease: “We should be ashamed. It is a disease that has been with us for a long time and we have shown that it can be eradicated.but we have allowed millions of people in poor countries to continue to get sick and die.”
As a positive aspect, Sands has pointed out that in recent years more “political will” against tuberculosis has been perceived. “We have a new generation of tools, the hope of a vaccine, we have better drugs for drug-resistant tuberculosis… But my fear is that having better tools is not going to be enough if we don’t have determination”, she has stressed.
