Peg Willingham, Senior Director External Affairs at Aeras told journalists this week that less money was being channeled towards the development of a TB vaccine and that some governments had ‘€œtaken time off’€.

‘€œIt will still take time to develop a vaccine, even if we had all the money in the world. The science is difficult,’€ Willingham added.

There was however, some good news with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs  renewing its funding to Aeras with a pledge of an additional 11,7-million Euros over four years.

She said the Klerksdorp trial would resume next year. The Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation is a non-profit development partnership developing new TB vaccines and ensuring they are distributed to those who need it.

Speaking on the eve of the 41st Union World Conference on Lung Health, Willingham said they were not in competition with other diseases also in need of a vaccine, but that ‘€œmoney goes to things that are politically popular’€.

Aeras has set as a goal the development of a vaccine that can be given to all ages as well as those living with HIV and drug-resistant TB. There are currently 9 candidate vaccines in clinical trials with several being tested at South Africa sites. South Africa is also being considered as a site to manufacture a TB vaccine once a successful product has been developed.

‘€œWe don’€™t want a vaccine that’€™s too expensive, so we won’€™t pursue it. When it comes to TB, customers are people who can’€™t pay,’€ said Willingham.

The only TB vaccine currently available, the Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG) gives limited and unreliable protection and does not protect against pulmonary TB which affects 75% of those infected. In South Africa, BCG is given to infants a couple of hours after birth.

Researchers presenting at The Union conference have called for HIV positive infants to be placed on antiretrovirals as soon as they are diagnosed. There is agreement that currently the BCG vaccine is not safe in HIV-infected infants, but that this may change as ARVs become more widely available.

Because it is a live vaccine, it can cause “disseminated BCG disease,” a type of whole-body bacterial infection that is fatal in more than 70 percent of cases.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that use of the BCG vaccine be delayed until infants can be tested for HIV.

According to WHO statistics 1,7-million people died from TB in 2009, including 380 000 with HIV. This equates to 4 700 deaths a day.

There were 9,4-million new TB cases in 2009.

* Health-e is reporting from The Union conference in Berlin thanks to support from the National Press Foundation and The Union.