OXFORD The first vaccine against tuberculosis to be developed for 80 years has begun clinical trials, after work by British scientists.

If the tests are successful, it could be available within eight years, giving medicine an important weapon for containing the resurgent disease. TB kills two million people in the developing world every year, and is making a comeback in developed countries such as Britain. The sole available vaccine is BCG, which protects only against severe forms of the disease, and does not work in adults. The new vaccine, developed by Helen McShane, of the University of Oxford, works in tandem with BCG, using a protein found in all strains of TB to boost immune cells.

Dr McShane, whose work is funded by the Wellcome Trust, said: “The rise in the cases of multidrug-resistant forms of TB plus the increasing number of cases of TB in people living with HIV means a new vaccine is essential.” Safety trials in The Gambia have been successful, and the vaccine is now beginning Phase 2 trials in South Africa. Is this the end of TB?

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