A new vaccine has been discovered to fight against Tuberculosis(TB) before and even after the infection.This new theory been discovered by a Danish scientists.
BBC reports the vaccine gives protection for many years more than the existing one.
TB is a disease that follows regular cough,chest pains and weight loss.If goes untreated it could be proved life damaging.However in some cases the symptons are developed immediately after infection.
But in more than 90% of the cases,once Mycobacterium tuberculosis which causes the disease enters the body and remain there in a dormant or latent state.Vaccine used currently is BCG,that works only if given exposure to the bacterium.It do not prevent infection.Once the bacterium reaches its dormant state,BCG is not yet so successful in destroying it.
Thus a major breakthrough in curing the disease is given by a team at Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen which combines protein that produces an immune response to both active and latent forms of Microbacterium.
TB can be treated with correct antibiotic intake,which are not always easily accessible in the developing world,where the new vaccine provides greater benefits.Researcher Professor Peter Lawwaetz Anderson says “It might be possible to give a booster jab post-exposure to older children or even young adults which would protect them well into adulthood.”
Professor Peter Davies says “One of the main disadvantages of BCG was that it could only prevent infection going on to disease in the initially uninfected individual.It was therefore of no use in protecting infected adults who would become an infectious source of disease”
Some of the TB symptoms are:
- A bad cough that lasts for 3 weeks or more.
- pain in the chest
- Coughing up blood or sputum(phlegm from deep inside the lungs.
- weakness or fatigue
- weight loss
- sweating at night