Study: TB vaccine via inhaler effective

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., March 17 (UPI) -- A new dry powder tuberculosis vaccine administered using an inhaler is as effective as the TB vaccine commonly used worldwide, a U.S. study said.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Pharmacy said the vaccine is spray dried instead of freeze dried. Spray drying is the process of spraying a liquid through a heated gas such as nitrogen to create a powder. Spray dried vaccines don't need refrigeration or water to be used.

Traditional TB vaccines are freeze dried, requiring refrigerated storage and transportation, and a source of clean water to reconstitute the vaccine for injection, study leader Tony Hickey said.

"The real advantage is that this vaccine does not need to be refrigerated," Hickey said in a statement. "It also doesn't require needles, syringes and water like the injectable vaccine, and administering it is as easy as breathing in, making it ideal for use in developing countries."

Hickey, an expert in the delivery of vaccines and medicines via dry aerosol, said that breathing in a TB vaccine is beneficial because inhalation is the way tuberculosis is contracted.

The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.