Tuberculosis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Tuberculosis, including details on symptoms, causes, treatment, pulmonary, mycobacterium.

The success and failure of BCG - implications for a novel tuberculosis vaccine.

Andersen P, Doherty TM

Statens Serum Institute, Department of Infectious Disease Immunology, Artillerivej 5, 2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark. pa@ssi.dk

Over the past 50 years, the Mycobacterium bovis bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) has maintained its position as the world's most widely used vaccine, despite showing highly variable efficacy (0-80%) in different trials. The efficacy of BCG in adults is particularly poor in tropical and subtropical regions. Studies in animal models of TB, supported by data from clinical BCG trials in humans, indicate that this failure is related to pre-existing immune responses to antigens that are common to environmental mycobacteria and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Here, we discuss the potential mechanisms behind the variation of BCG efficacy and their implications for an improved TB vaccination strategy.

Published 2 August 2005 in Nat Rev Microbiol, 3(8): 656-62.
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