Vaccines given to adults and adolescents in middle and low-income nations could potentially have a much bigger effect in eliminating tuberculosis worldwide, said researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Stop TB Department of the World Health Organization.

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Instead of vaccinating infants with existing drugs, developing new ones for adults and adolescents could eliminate the disease from the planet by 2050.

Even if the vaccine is expensive and have a short efficacy duration, it would be more likely be cost effective compared to present methods of TB prevention.

A mathematical model was used by researchers to approximate the cost-effectiveness and effect of a number of vaccination strategies in middle and low-income nations. With the assumption that vaccines would be widely manufactured by 2024, the team identified a method that would have the biggest worldwide effect on TB from 2024 to 2050.

Gwen Knight, a research fellow in infectious disease modeling at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said new vaccines should be developed and substantial levels of control are needed to eradicate the disease.

"But because trials of TB vaccines are hugely expensive, their development needs very clear guidance," Knight said. "If elimination by 2050 is the goal, our study provides evidence that new vaccines should focus on targeting adolescents and adults rather than children."

While Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), the present TB vaccine, is widely given to infants, TB deaths and cases remain extremely high. Previous studies said the development of new vaccines is the only way to eliminate TB.

The study authors noted the limitations of the study, including large levels of uncertainty for the estimates. The authors said their findings should not be interpreted as precise predictions, but as magnitudes in difference with the current system.

TagsTuberculosis, Tuberculosis vaccine, vaccine, vaccination, Infant vaccination, TB vaccine, Adult Tuberculosis vaccine, Adolescent Tuberculosis vaccine