Cape Town - A clinical trial for a more advanced vaccination against childhood tuberculosis will soon be conducted in South Africa.
The vaccine, developed by a German company called Vakzine Project Management (VPM), is being tested as a replacement for the current BCG vaccine (Bacille Calmette Guerin).
BCG is currently given to all South African newborns as part of the Department of Health’s immunisation programme.
The World Health Organisation reports that more than 250 000 children develop TB each year, while 100 000 of those die.
South Africa is ranked third-highest in the world (after India and China) for carrying the burden of the disease.
The mandatory public notice that was published earlier this week said BCG had been found to have inadequate efficacy against most forms of childhood TB or of having an impact on TB control.
According to one of the principal investigators, Mark Cotton, director of Children’s Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Unit at the University of Stellenbosch: “The VPM vaccine is modified to give a better immune response and also to be safer.”
The VPM vaccine has been successfully studied in adults (including in South Africa) and safety was confirmed in a small study of very healthy newborn infants in Cape Town.
The next phase, said Cotton, was to do a study in a larger number of babies who represented the general population, including where mothers have HIV. - Cape Times