Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) is a pathogen found worldwide that infects humans causing tuberculosis (TB), a transmissible disease resulting in very high mortality and morbidity. It is estimated that a third of the world's population is latently infected with M.tb, and these people carry a 10% lifetime risk of developing active life-threatening disease. In 2013, there were 9 million new cases worldwide and 1.5 million people died of TB. Co-infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) greatly increases risk of TB reactivation and death. TB diagnosis is challenging and drug treatment can be prolonged, harmful, costly and complex. For these reasons an effective vaccine is a global public health priority.~Currently to assess vaccine efficacy against TB there is no reliable alternative to large, randomized controlled trials. These efficacy trials for novel TB vaccines are challenging, time consuming and very costly. For other diseases, such as malaria, challenge studies have been informative. The development of a safe controlled human mycobacterial challenge model which would ultimately be validated against field efficacy studies could greatly facilitate TB vaccine development by being a guide for selecting which candidate TB vaccines to take forwards to large efficacy trials.~TB041 is a clinical challenge trial primarily to evaluate the safety of BCG challenge administered by the aerosol inhaled route in healthy, BCG naive UK adults. The trial will also look to evaluate and compare the amount of BCG recovered from the lungs and from the skin, following challenge by either the aerosol or the intradermal route.
TB041 is a clinical challenge trial primarily to evaluate the safety of BCG challenge administered by the aerosol inhaled route in healthy, BCG naive UK adults. The trial will also look to evaluate and compare the amount of BCG recovered from the lungs and from the skin, following challenge by either the aerosol or the intradermal route.