What’s New in the Development of Tuberculosis Vaccines

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major infectious disease problem of worldwide prevalence and ranks among the top 10 causes of global mortality. The most recent estimates by the World Health Organization suggest that there were 9.4 million incidence cases, and 1.7 million people died of TB in 2009. About one third of the world population is estimated to be latently infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and at least 10% of these people will develop active disease in their lifetime. In spite of worldwide efforts to control TB, the global burden of the disease is increasing, particularly among the poor developing countries of Asia and Africa. This is due to many reasons, including wars and immigration, poverty and malnutrition, HIV-TB co-infection and the increasing prevalence of multi-drug resistant and excessive drug-resistant TB. The worldwide control of TB requires development of new drugs, cost-effective methods/reagents for specific diagnosis and new vaccines. Among these possibilities, the development of new vaccines deserves priority because effective vaccines are the best weapons to fight against infectious diseases.