Background: Tuberculosis (TB), a chronic infectious disease, causes a high mortality worldwide with nearly 1.8 million deaths in 2016. World Health Organization (WHO) declared its aim to end the global TB epidemic by 2035. The End TB strategy targets a 90% reduction in TB deaths and an 80% reduction in TB incidence by 2030, compared with 2015. To achieve those goals, WHO have established strategies for the introduction of new TB vaccines as well as effective treatments and drugs.
Current status: Currently, 13 TB vaccines are in various phases of clinical trials, including subunit vaccine based on antigens that are recognized by T cell from TB patients, live vector vaccines based on recombinant viral vectors, and mycobacterial-whole cell or extract vaccines as BCG priming vaccine, BCG boosting vaccine or immunotherapeutic vaccine. In addition, researches on biomarkers for antigen diversification in developing effective TB vaccines and diagnostics are in progress.
Future: This review implies that South Korea need to accelerate the development of TB vaccine to effectively lessen the burden of TB through multi-sectoral international collaboration.