Tuberculosis vaccine: time to look into future.

Global burden of tuberculosis is nearly 12 million. As per the WHO Global TB Report 2013, there were an estimated 8.6 million incident cases of TB globally in 2012. Tuberculosis is an issue that affects development through its effect on the health of individuals and families. In humans, neither prior latent infection nor recovery from active TB confers reliable protection against reinfection or reactivation disease. The power of vaccines as a public health intervention lies in their ability to reduce onward transmission of disease as much as in their ability to protect vaccinated individuals; a feature generally referred to as "herd immunity." MVA85A is a booster vaccine, used in con-junction with BCG as part of a prime-boost strategy. BCG serves as the prime vaccination and MVA85A as the boost, operating under the theory that the addition of MVA85A will produce a better immune response and more protection against TB than BCG vaccination alone. There is a critical need to raise the profile of TB vaccine research at the community, national, regional, and global levels in order to generate support and political will, increase investment, create an enabling and supportive environment for clinical trials, and lay the groundwork for acceptance and adoption of new TB vaccines once licensed.