India is looking at several potential vaccine candidates for deployment in the tuberculosis elimination programme with the Indian Council for Medical Research testing the BCG vaccine for TB control.
Speaking to The Tribune on Tuesday, ICMR
chief and secretary health research Rajiv Bahl said the BCG vaccine, currently
administered to children, was being tested in adults vulnerable to TB. The
Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine is given to children at risk of
tuberculosis (TB). It's a common vaccine in countries where TB is prevalent.
India houses nearly one fourth of the global TB-affected people and has a
target of elimination of the disease by 2025.
"The BCG vaccine study for potential
TB control has two arms. One is the non-vaccinated arm and the other the
vaccinated arm. We have administered the BCG vaccine to adults across all major
tuberculosis vulnerability groups including those with diabetes, the elderly,
the contacts of patients and others who are vulnerable. About one crore people
have been given the vaccine and then we have the non-vaccinated people who are
vulnerable to TB. In about a year, results will tell us whether the vaccinated
people are showing any reduction in TB as compared to those who have not
received the vaccine. The results will take a year to come," Bahl said.
He said results of a study that tested the
recombinant BCG vaccine in contacts of TB patients did not yield good results.
"We are constantly testing for new TB
vaccines. One candidate is a Spanish-developed vaccine which we are testing in
the Indians in collaboration with Bharat Biotech which has received technology
transfer from the Spanish firm. Unless we do a full evaluation of safety and
efficacy we cannot use a vaccine in our programme. Our condition is to make the
TB vaccine in India," said Bahl.
No comments:
Post a Comment