Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 May:79:103993.
doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.103993. Epub 2022 Apr 12.

Tuberculosis vaccines in the era of Covid-19 - what is taking us so long?

Hazel M Dockrell  1 , Helen McShane  2
Affiliations
Review

Tuberculosis vaccines in the era of Covid-19 - what is taking us so long?

Hazel M Dockrell et al. EBioMedicine. 2022 May.

Abstract

The Mycobacterium bovis BCG vaccine was first used in 1921, but has not controlled the global spread of tuberculosis (TB). There are still no new licensed tuberculosis vaccines, although there much active research and a vaccine development pipeline, with vaccines designed to prevent infection, prevent disease, or accelerate TB treatment. These vaccines are of different types, and designed to replace BCG, or to boost immunity following BCG vaccination. This viewpoint discusses why, when it has been possible to develop new vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 so quickly, it is taking so long to develop new tuberculosis vaccines.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; Tuberculosis; Vaccines.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests HMD and HMcS both report no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The TB vaccine pipeline. The live, whole cell, subunit and viral-vectored vaccine candidates in the TB vaccine development pipeline as at October 2021 are shown, together with their intended target population. Reproduced with permission from TBVI.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lange C, Aaby P, Behr MA, et al. 100 years of Mycobacterium bovis bacille Calmette-Guérin. Lancet Infect Dis. 2022;22:e2–e12. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kaufmann SHE. Vaccine development against tuberculosis over the last 140 years: failure as part of success. Front Microbiol. 2021;12 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Brosch R, Gordon SV, Garnier T, et al. Genome plasticity of BCG and impact on vaccine efficacy. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2007;104:5596–5601. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Trunz BB, Fine P, Dye C. Effect of BCG vaccination on childhood tuberculous meningitis and miliary tuberculosis worldwide: a meta-analysis and assessment of cost-effectiveness. Lancet. 2006;367:1173–1180. - PubMed
    1. Mangtani P, Abubakar I, Ariti C, et al. Protection by BCG vaccine against tuberculosis: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Clin Infect Dis. 2014;58:470–480. - PubMed