Author: Bavesh Kana, Head of the Centre of Excellence for Biomedical TB Research, University of the Witwatersrand

Tuberculosis dates back more than 9,000 years. It is the most infectious bacterial disease and in 2022 10.6 million people fell ill with it. Of these 23% occurred in Africa. The only vaccine against tuberculosis, the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, is more than 100 years old and is primarily effective for infants and young children. Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Pathology have made a significant breakthrough in vaccine development by gene-editing the BCG to make it more effective. Mice vaccinated with the modified BCG vaccine were better able to limit tuberculosis growth in their lungs than…