Tuberculosis kills as many people each year as COVID-19. It’s time we found a better vaccine
Journal Contribution ResearchOnline@JCUAbstract
[Extract] In July 1921, a French infant became the first person to receive an experimental vaccine againsttuberculosis (TB), after the mother had died from the disease. The vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is the same one still used today. This first dose of BCG was the culmination of 13 years of research and development. BCG remains the only licensed vaccine against TB and 2021 marks its 100th anniversary. Today, all eyes are on the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. But while the number of people who died from COVID-19 in the last year is shocking, TB kills about the same number of people — about 1.5-2 million — each year, and has done so for many decades. In fact, it’s estimated that over the last 200 years, more than 1 billion people have died from TB, far more than from any other infectious disease.
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The Conversation
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15 January 2021
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2201-5639
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5
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Conversation Media Group
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