TB : upgrading our defences.

A documentary about TB and the failures of the BCG vaccine. The programme begins with Amy McConville who has contracted TB whilst living in London. She faces an operation to remove her damaged lung. Dr Helen McShane of Oxford University has, with the help of the Wellcome Trust, has developed the first new TB vaccine for eighty years. Helen and her team are in constant contact with the team in South Africa, which has the highest rates of TB infection in the world. As many forms of the TB virus are now antibiotic resistant, plus the fact that AIDS is so prevalent in South Africa, means that many people there have a poor prognosis. Amy's operation is shown whilst Dr McShane visits the TB clinic in South Africa and speaks to doctors about the importance of finishing treatments in order to prevent the emergence of drug-resistant TB. Footage is shown of McShane's new vaccine being tested out on vulnerable South Africans. She hopes the vaccine will be on the market in less than five years.