<h1 style="margin-top:3.0pt;margin-right:-160.0pt;margin-bottom:13.0pt;
margin-left:0in;line-height:34.0pt"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:
Arial;color:#505050;letter-spacing:-1.0pt">TB VACCINE PROTECTS BEFORE AND AFTER
EXPOSURE</span></h1>

<p class="introduction" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:
.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:18.0pt"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">A new vaccine that can fight tuberculosis (TB)
before and after infection has been developed by Danish scientists.</span></b></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">It could offer protection for many years more
than is now possible.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">TB is a huge global problem, particularly in
developing countries, where access to antibiotics to treat the disease is
limited.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">The latest vaccine, so far tested in animals,
is featured in the journal Nature Medicine.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">TB is a disease of the lungs, causing symptoms
such as coughing, chest pains and weight loss. Untreated, it can be deadly.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">However, only in a small number of cases -
fewer than 5% - do the symptoms develop immediately after infection.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">In more than 90% of cases, once Mycobacterium
tuberculosis, the bacterium which causes the disease, has invaded the body it
changes its chemical signature, and lives in a dormant - or "latent"
- state.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">Usually the bacterium never emerges from this
latent state, but in around 10% of cases it reactivates - often years or even
decades later - to trigger severe symptoms.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333333">Current
vaccines, such as the BCG vaccine, work only if given before exposure to the
bacterium.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">They do not prevent infection, but do prevent
acute symptoms and disease from emerging.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">But once the bacterium has changed into its
latent form it is effectively immune to the vaccine, and can bide its time,
reactivating after the vaccine has ceased to have a preventative effect.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">If successful in human trials, the new vaccine
would be able to tackle that problem.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><strong><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">'Major breakthrough'</span></strong><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333333"></span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">Developed by a team at the Statens Serum
Institute in Copenhagen,
it combines proteins that trigger an immune response to both the active and
latent forms of Mycobacterium.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">Researcher Professor Peter Lawętz Andersen
said: "It might be possible to give a booster jab post-exposure to older
children or even young adults which would protect them well into
adulthood."</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">Although TB can be treated with antibiotics,
those drugs are often not easily accessible in the developing world, where the
new vaccine could have the greatest benefit.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">Professor Andersen said: "In these areas
you cannot go in and treat more than half the local population. For instance,
in Capetown 60% of people are thought to be infected."</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">Professor Peter Davies, secretary of the group
TB Alert, said: "A vaccine which can both protect against initial
infection and protect from a breakdown of infection into disease is a major
breakthrough.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">"One of the main disadvantages of BCG was
that it could only prevent infection going on to disease in the initially
uninfected individual. It was therefore of no use in protecting infected adults
who would become an infectious source of disease. Protecting children, though
of value, does not protect against transmission, as children with active
disease do not usually transmit disease.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">"So far so good but we must remember that
mice are not men (or women)."</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">Professor Francis Drobniewski, Director of the
Health Protection Agency's National Mycobacterium Reference Laboratory said:
"This is an exciting and thoughtful piece of research. The existing BCG
vaccine is cheap, safe, widely used but of limited efficacy.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">"With over nine million new TB cases
globally each year and increasing levels of drug resistance new diagnostics,
drugs and especially effective vaccines are desperately needed."</span></p>

<h1 style="margin-top:3.0pt;margin-right:-160.0pt;margin-bottom:13.0pt;
margin-left:0in;line-height:34.0pt"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:
Arial;color:#505050;letter-spacing:-1.0pt"></span>GAVI: PNEUMONIA VACCINE 'TO
SAVE THOUSANDS OF LIVES'</h1>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:16.0pt"><span class="byline-name"><b><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#505050">By Fergus Walsh</span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span></b></span><span class="byline-title"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#505050">Medical correspondent,
BBC News</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:13.0pt"></span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:16.0pt"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#505050">The pneumonia vaccine is given as a series of
three injections</span></p>

<p class="introduction" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:
.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:18.0pt"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333"> </span></b></p>

<p class="introduction" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:
.25in;margin-left:0in;line-height:18.0pt"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">A new vaccine against pneumonia is being
rolled out in Africa which, it is estimated,
could eventually save more than half a million lives a year globally.</span></b></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">Children in Kenya
have begun receiving the jab, which will also be used this year in Sierra Leone, Yemen,
Honduras and Guyana.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">Infants in Nicaragua started receiving the
vaccine a few weeks ago.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">The Gavi Alliance
- a global health partnership of public and private sectors for immunisation -
says 19 countries are set to receive the jab, but many more could benefit if
the funding becomes available.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">Gavi says it needs an extra £500m ($800m)
annually for the next five years to meet a shortfall in immunisation for existing
and new vaccines.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:16.0pt"><span class="cross-head"><b><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#505050"><span style="text-rendering: optimizelegibility">Preventable illnesses</span></span></b></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;color:#505050"></span></span></p>


<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333333">The
pneumonia vaccine protects against pneumococcal disease, the leading cause of
severe pneumonia in children. It also guards against a form of meningitis and
blood poisoning.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;color:#333333"></span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">Pneumonia kills more children than any other
illness, claiming around 1.7 million lives every year.</span></p>

<p class="first-child" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
margin-left:0in;line-height:16.0pt">“The money needed for basic immunisation is
in doubt, let alone for this effective new vaccine against pneumonia”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span><span class="quote-credit"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#505050">Catherine Fitzgibbon</span></span><span class="quote-credit-title"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:#505050">Save the Children</span></span><span style="font-size:13.0pt;
color:#505050"></span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto" id="story_continues_2"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333333">At the Langata health
centre in Nairobi,
scores of mothers brought their babies along for the first of three injections.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">Beatrice Aching's son Wesley died from
pneumonia in November. She brought her three-month-old daughter Tamara to be
immunised. She said: "My son's death happened very suddenly. Wesley got
sick in the morning and by evening he had died in hospital - I don't want that
to happen to Tamara."</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">Leah Otieno's nine-month-old son Emmanuel got
pneumonia before Christmas but recovered after antibiotic treatment - she says
she is delighted to get him protected.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">The charity Save the Children has launched a
report, No Child Born to Die, which highlights the potential funding shortfall
for global immunisation.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">The report also says there is a critical
shortage of 3.5 million health workers in poor countries, without whom millions
of children will face illness and early death.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">"Too many children are dying every day of
vaccine-preventable illnesses and from the lack of basic healthcare," said
Catherine Fitzgibbon from Save the Children. "The money needed for basic
immunisation is in doubt, let alone for this effective new vaccine against
pneumonia."</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:16.0pt"><span class="cross-head"><b><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#505050"><span style="text-rendering: optimizelegibility">Price deal</span></span></b></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;color:#505050"></span></span></p>


<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:16.0pt"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#505050">The pneumonia vaccine is given as a series of
three injections</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">In June 2011, the UK
government is hosting a meeting of Gavi in London which will be attended by world
leaders. The UK
provides a quarter of all Gavi's funding - more than any other nation.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">Save the Children says it will be campaigning
for rich nations to increase support for global immunisation, and for the
pharmaceutical industry to lower the price of vaccines.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">The pneumococcal vaccine costs £2.20 ($3.50)
in Africa compared to £38 in Europe as a
result of a deal between Gavi and two manufacturers: Pfizer and GSK. The
roll-out in the developing world comes just a year after the same vaccine was
introduced in the United
  States.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">GSK said the discounted price is only
fractionally above the cost of production. A spokesman said the vaccine takes a
year to produce and is the most technically sophisticated of all its vaccines.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:#333333">A second vaccine against rotavirus - the main
cause of serious diarrhoea - is also being ready to be rolled out. But this,
too, is far more expensive than the basic childhood vaccines against diseases
like measles, whooping cough and polio.</span></p>

<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.25in;margin-left:0in;
line-height:18.0pt;text-rendering: auto">Pneumonia and diarrhoea account for a
third of all deaths in young children in the developing world. Gavi and Save
the Children say a comprehensive roll-out of the pneumococcal and rotavirus
vaccines could potentially prevent more than one million deaths annually.<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333333"></span></p>