OREANDA-NEWS. A new vaccine against tuberculosis for adults may appear as early as 2019. The Ministry of Health of Russia said that the vaccine is now at the stage of clinical research.

A new vaccine against tuberculosis for the adult population of Russia is now at the stage of clinical research, and its creation may be completed in 2019. This was announced on Thursday by Tatyana Yakovleva, First Deputy Minister of Health of the Russian Federation, at the press conference on the state anti-tuberculosis policy.

"The vaccine has completely passed the stage of preclinical studies, the first stage of clinical studies, and it has shown its high efficiency. I think this year we will finish the second stage of clinical studies, and then we will have a new vaccine for adults," Tatyana Yakovleva said, adding that specialists from Nikolay Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology are involved in the development of the vaccine.

Tuberculosis is a contagious disease, the causative agent of which is Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Most often tuberculosis affects lungs, and sometimes nervous system, urinary, bones, digestive systems, brain, skin, or eyes. The disease is spread by airborne transmission and usually grow progressively worse in a latent form, but in some cases it becomes an open, active form of infection.

For the prevention of tuberculosis, it is recommended using screening programs, medical examinations, vaccinations. According to the World Health Organization, 10 million people are taken ill with tuberculosis every year, every tenth is a child. Tuberculosis remains the leading infectious cause of death in the world, claiming almost 4.4 thousands every day.

According to “Rospotrebnadzor” (Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare), more than 61.5 thousand people were taken ill with tuberculosis in Russia in 2018, which is 7.7% less than in 2017.