Tuberculosis (TB) has plagued humans for millennia and it remains a leading cause of illness and death throughout the world. Although a TB vaccine has been available for about 100 years, it does not work to prevent pulmonary TB in adolescents and adults, which is the most common form of TB. Now thanks to the combined funding of the Wellcome and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a late-phase clinical trial of a new TB vaccine candidate may finally provide a tool to control this disease.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB, was discovered by Robert Koch in 1882 and has caused more human deaths than any other pathogen. It is an unusual bacteria in that it grows slowly even under lab conditions. It infects cells and can become dormant. In other words, not everyone infected with TB gets sick. This dormant, or latent, form of TB can persist for life, but it can reactivate if a person’s immune system is weakened by something like HIV infection. For these and other reasons, TB is challenging to treat.

Medical Discovery News is a weekly radio and print broadcast highlighting medical and scientific breakthroughs hosted by professor emeritus, Norbert Herzog, and professor, David Niesel, biomedical scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Learn more at www.medicaldiscoverynews.com.

0
0
0
0
0

(0) comments

Welcome to the discussion.

Internet forum rules ...
Real names required. No pseudonyms or partial names allowed. Stand behind what you post.
Keep it clean. Don't use obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don’t knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be brief. Keep posts to 250 words or less.
Edit yourself. No more than three posts per thread and stay on topic. Do not link to sites outside galvnews.com.
Be aware. All posts are property of The Daily News and may be republished in print.
Be proactive. Use the "Report" link on each comment to let us know of rule violations.

Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to read or post comments.