Stay Awesome
Tuberculosis
Find most of the information you need in these resources
Always refer to your local signed PGD's in practice, and remember the Green Book takes priority over the SPmC - and sometimes WHO takes priority over the Green Book! They don't always say the same!
2024 summary from the GHTC
This past year, TB surpassed COVID-19 to reclaim the spot as the world’s leading infectious disease killer, according to WHO’s Global Tuberculosis Report 2024. While this sobering news underscored major gaps in the tools needed to prevent, diagnose, and treat TB, especially drug-resistant TB, 2024 also brought exciting news on the research front that will hopefully help fill them.
In March, a Phase 3 trial launched in South Africa, which is testing a TB vaccine candidate that could eventually become the first vaccine to prevent pulmonary TB in adolescents and adults. The only approved TB vaccine on the market, which was developed more than 100 years ago, is effective at preventing some types of TB in infants, but it offers inconsistent protection in adults against pulmonary TB.
Additionally in November, the endTB consortium announced the completion of the first Phase 3 randomized controlled trial to exclusively enroll people with pre-extensively drug-resistant TB, a very hard-to-treat form of TB. Preliminary results demonstrated that a shorter, less toxic treatment strategy achieved high cure rates. Earlier in the year, WHO also recommended three new regimens for multidrug- or rifampicin-resistant TB, offering a much-needed variety of therapeutic alternatives for those with multidrug-resistant TB.
Other useful links and further reading:
Government collections and posters/ letters. You will likely find everything you need here!
WHO fact sheet - worth a read
Useful TB quick quiz
Annual Global TB report (WHO)
NICE Guidelines (always check latest versions)
Government Guidance (always check for updates such as this)
UKHSA Patient Group Direction (PGD) template for BCG Vaccine AJV vaccine
BCG Atlas: Country information on vaccine history and use (the BCG Atlas is really useful when doing scar checks too)
Article in the Guardian relating to treatment: ‘I wasn’t sure I’d make it’: how a new mother’s brush with TB could mean better treatment for pregnant women
Check out this intriguing headline: Administering the BCG vaccine during the active phase of COVID-19 may help protect against the development of long COVID.
Factors influencing scar formation following Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination
Recent Updates & News
Upcoming conference!!!! 24th March - World TB Day conference
23rd March: A late-stage tuberculosis vaccine is making its way through clinical trials. This looks promising and shows a 50% efficacy in reducing pulmonary TB in adults with latent TB infection—an unprecedented result in decades of TB vaccine research. The current BCG vaccine lacks in efficacy for adult forms of TB, despite being very good at preventing severe childhood forms of TB. COME ON TB VACCINES!!!
10th March 2025: Study discovers tuberculosis genes necessary for airborne transmission
26th Feb: IAVI and Biofabri/Zendal announce first vaccinations in the IMAGINE clinical trial, a large-scale safety and efficacy trial of the tuberculosis vaccine candidate MTBVAC. MTBVAC is a promising vaccine candidate being evaluated in the IMAGINE trial for the prevention of TB disease in adolescents and adults with latent TB infection in South Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania.
25th Feb 2025: Designing self-destructing bacteria to make effective TB vaccines. Working toward more effective TB vaccines, researchers have developed two strains of mycobacteria with “kill switches” that can be triggered to stop the bacteria after they activate an immune response.
20th Feb 2025: New mRNA vaccine tested in mice has potential to help fight tuberculosis
6th Feb 2025: Interesting article: AI accelerates search for new tuberculosis drug targets. While tuberculosis is typically treated with antibiotics, the rise of drug-resistant strains has led to an urgent need for new drug candidates. A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes the novel use of artificial intelligence to screen for antimicrobial compound candidates that could be developed into new tuberculosis drug treatments. I personally think AI will do wonders in many areas of medicine!
30th Jan 2025: Interesting article: Molecular bacterial load assay: Method predicts effectiveness of tuberculosis therapy. We need more like this!!! And another interesting read: Three new drug regimens offer hope for drug-resistant tuberculosis.
29th Jan 2025: Major tuberculosis outbreak hits Kansas City area
16th Jan 2025: Tuberculosis in England, 2024 report updated. Incidence, treatment and prevention of tuberculosis (TB) in England using data up until the end of 2023.
29th October: Tuberculosis has pipped COVID-19 to the post now for being the top cause for infectious disease-related death in 2023. If you are involved in TB services (or even if you're not) it's worth a read of the latest WHO report. But if you just want the highlights, it's generally bad news. Last year 8.2 million people were newly diagnosed. This is the highest number reported since reporting began (1995). There were less deaths (1.09 million) - but more people (roughly 10.8 million) unwell with it. The targets for reducing it are all messed up too. We are in for a rough ride trying to meet those eradication goals :-(
22nd October: Interesting (yet worrying) trend noted: Cases of tuberculosis in Scotland rose 40% last year. Public Health Scotland (PHS) data shows there were 283 confirmed cases of the disease in 2023 – a 40.8% increase from the 201 recorded the previous year.
OCTOBER 2024 Well this looks hopeful.... Modified bloodroot compound shows promise against multidrug-resistant tuberculosis
AUGUST 2024 BCG National PGD template updated to V5 for those under 16 years old.
JULY 2024 Fancy a trip to Brazil to learn more about future TB vaccines? Then this is the link you need! Oct 8th-10th 2024. (it's also online if you can't get to Brazil)
MAY 2024 Guardian article: TB has reclaimed its place as the world’s biggest infectious killer – but are its days numbered? Health experts pin their hopes on long-awaited trials into a new potential vaccine for tuberculosis (MUCH NEEDED!)
FEB 2024 Article: Is the 100-year old TB vaccine a new weapon against Alzheimer’s? - Incredible!
SEPT 2023 NaTHNaC reviewed the country-specific recommendations - see details here.
2023 Latest WHO annual report published (WHO has published a global TB report every year since 1997. The report provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic, and of progress in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease at global, regional and country levels)
AUG 2022 Interesting article published by Johns Hopkins: Why TB deserves your attention
Bits and bobs to casually drop into conversation
Did you know....
BCG is one of the most widely used vaccines in the world!
Approximately a quarter of the global population is estimated to be infected with TB bacteria, but most people will not go on to develop TB disease and some will clear the infection.
People infected with TB bacteria have a 5–10% lifetime risk of falling ill with TB. Those with compromised immune systems, such as people living with HIV, malnutrition or diabetes, or people who use tobacco, have a higher risk of falling ill.
10 million people a year fall ill with TB.
Despite being a preventable and curable disease, 1.5 million people die from TB each year – making it the world’s top infectious killer.
TB causes more deaths than HIV and malaria and put together
TB is the leading cause of death of people with HIV and also a major contributor to antimicrobial resistance.
Most of the people who fall ill with TB live in low- and middle-income countries, but TB is present all over the world. About half of all people with TB can be found in 8 countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines and South Africa.
The BCG vaccine has many uses! It can be used to spur on vaccine research for leprosy, treat bladder cancer and has had some very positive trial results at reversing type 1 diabetes!
What a powerful tool BCG vaccine is!
