Researchers recommend that new TB vaccines target adults and teens

Scientists in the UK propose that adults and teenagers should be the main target groups for tuberculosis (TB) vaccination programmes in the future.   

This came out of their study, published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which involved using a mathematical model to estimate the effectiveness of a range of vaccination methods if they were to be used between 2024 and 2050 in low- and middle-income countries.

Their results suggest that vaccinating teenagers and adults in these countries would have the greatest impact and be the most cost-effective strategy to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) by 2050.

This differs from current widely-used methods, which involves giving the Bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG) to children.

The authors note that there are limitations to their predictions, and state that they should be treated as estimates rather than precise forecasts.

Read the press release. 

Read the abstract of the journal article.