A Tuberculosis (TB) Vaccine Council will soon be established by the World Health Organization (WHO).

According to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO, 10.6 million people worldwide contracted TB in 2021, and 1.6 million people died from it.

Dr. Adhanom expressed confidence that the Covid-19 pandemic's harmful effects on the disease will be successfully contained by the TB Vaccine Accelerator Council.

“No new TB vaccine has been licensed in 100 years. The prospects for noble effective TB vaccines have improved recently with at least 16 vaccine candidates proving the worth of the vaccine,” he explained.

The Director General made the revelation at the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday 18th 2023, during a virtual session with panelists.

He pointed out that the Council will need to make it easier for countries to licence and employ potent new TB vaccines in order for them to confidently abolish TB by 2030.

By doing this, the Council will hasten high-level coordination between funders, international organisations, governments, and end users in identifying and removing obstacles to the development of TB vaccines.

“One of the most important lessons learnt from the response to COVID-19 pandemic is that innovative health interventions can be delivered fast if they are prioritized politically and financed adequately,” said Dr Tedros.

While TB and Covid-19 present different difficulties, he noted that the factors that speed up science, research, and innovation are similar. As a result, he said, they both require immediate, upfront state funding, philanthropic assistance, commercial sector participation, and community involvement.

In particular, WHO thinks that similar high-level coordination between the new Council and the member nations will greatly assist the TB area.

According to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the WHO Eradicate TB Strategy, and the 2018 political declaration on the battle against the disease, governments have made strong commitments to end TB by 2030, but the pandemic is still raging, which worries the global organisation.

He observed that while TB and Covid-19 pose diverse challenges, the ingredients that accelerate science, research and innovation are the same, and so they need urgent, up-front public investment; support from philanthropy; engagement of the private sector and communities.

Pointedly, WHO believes that the TB field will immensely benefit from similar high-level coordination with the new Council and the member countries.

The world body is concerned that the epidemic is showing no sign of slowing down despite countries making bold commitments to end TB by 2030 as anticipated in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the WHO End TB Strategy and the 2018 political declaration on the fight against the disease.

Currently, Bacillus Calmette – Guerin Vaccine (BCG) so far remains the only licensed TB vaccine and provides moderate efficacy in preventing severe forms of the disease in infants and young children, the press statement released to the media stated.