The World Health Organization intends to create a Council for the accelerated development of vaccines against tuberculosis. This was announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the UN press service reports.

The Council will help to overcome barriers to the development of new TB vaccines, as well as their licensing and early use. 

"One of the most important lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic is that innovative health interventions are only taken quickly if they are given political priority and adequate funding," Ghebreyesus said.

While countries have made bold commitments to end TB by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, the epidemic shows no signs of slowing down. In 2021, approximately 10.6 million people fell ill with tuberculosis and 1.6 million died.

Currently, the only licensed TB vaccine in the world is BCG, developed more than a hundred years ago. It is moderately effective in preventing severe disease in infants and young children, but fails to provide adequate protection for adolescents and adults, who account for about 90 per cent of TB transmission worldwide.

A recent WHO study estimates that if a new vaccine is effective in 50 percent of cases, up to 76 million new TB cases, 8.5 million deaths, 42 million antibiotic treatments, and $6.5 billion in costs could be prevented within 25 years.

If a vaccine is developed with 75 percent efficacy, 110 million new TB infections and 12.3 million deaths could be prevented in the same time.