Grant: Project Grant

TB remains a leading infectious cause of global morbidity and mortality. The TB epidemic is made even worse by co-infection with HIV and multi-drug resistant bacteria. This occurs despite decades-long use of BCG vaccine and antibiotics to treat infection. Although the overall TB incidence is low in Canada compared to developing countries, TB remains an important public health issue. In Canada, TB is more common in immigrants, the homeless, and HIV positive persons, and outbreaks continue to occur in northern aboriginal communities. Our project aims to develop a new generation of TB vaccines for persons who have been previously been vaccinated with BCG, that can be delivered via the respiratory tract into the lung for the best protection against TB infection. The new TB vaccination strategy we propose to develop will help design better and safer TB vaccines and ultimately contribute to the effective control of TB lung infections in the world.