Our Changing World New Insights from an Old Vaccine

The story of tuberculosis goes back to the start of recorded human history, and since the 1800s it’s estimated it has been responsible for over 1 billion deaths. In New Zealand today we don’t have get many cases of the disease, but worldwide it is the leading infectious disease killer. In the early 1900s a vaccine was developed â€" the BCG vaccine â€" and it is still in use around the world. While it is still the best vaccine there we have at the moment, it is not great at its job of preventing TB infection, only providing some protection for the youngest of patients. However, scientists have discovered that the vaccine is able to boost people’s immune systems in other ways and gives them protection against some respiratory viruses, and sepsis. Now researchers at the Malaghan Institute in Wellington are further investigating these findings to figure out how we can better prepare our immune systems to help us fight disease.