Researchers unveil 'blueprint' to guide next steps in TB vaccine development

"On Tuesday, a global alliance of researchers and scientists -- led by the Stop TB Partnership, an umbrella group of health groups -- unveiled a 'blueprint' to develop a new vaccine [against tuberculosis (TB)] that aims to disrupt transmission in hard-hit countries and communities," the Wall Street Journal reports. "The blueprint calls for the groups to work together to test new vaccine candidates, and to coordinate fundraising for expansive and expensive human trials, representing the first comprehensive plan of the sort," the news service writes (Wonacott, 3/20).

"The fresh impetus to the research comes as scientists await the release in early 2013 of results from the world's most advanced TB vaccine trial -- one of 12 currently underway," Agence France-Presse notes (3/20). "Mike Brennan, an adviser to the U.S.-based Aeras non-profit TB research group, said the new worldwide blueprint for a plan of action followed 'tremendous progress' already made in the past decade," adding that "[t]he South African trials and work in other countries now mark 'a rallying point for one of the world's deadliest diseases' that includes strains resistant to conventional drugs," the Associated Press/Washington Post writes (3/20).