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Canadian scientists say theyve developed a vaccine for tuberculosis that could lead the way to ending the global fight against the virus with strains that have grown resistant to drugs. Matt McClain for The Washington Post via Getty Images

TORONTO Canadian scientists say theyve developed a vaccine for tuberculosis that could lead the way to ending the global fight against the virus with strains that have grown resistant to drugs.

McMaster University doctors in Hamilton, Ont., say theyre the first in the world to develop the treatment, which is based on a genetically-modified cold virus.

Tuberculosis is a serious public health threat. One-third of the worlds population is infected with the organism that causes tuberculosis, and it remains the top infectious killer of people only secondary to HIV; yet the current vaccine used to prevent it is ineffective, McMasters Dr. Fiona Smaill said in a news release.

Shes the chair of the department of pathology and molecular medicine at McMasters DeGroote School of Medicine.

Read more:Canadian researchers develop disease outbreak surveillance

The vaccine is meant to act as a booster to the only TB vaccine thats currently available its called Bacille Calmette Guerin or BCG. That treatment was developed in the 1920s and is part of the World Health Organizations immunization program in countries around the world.

Nunavut also uses BCG its the only Canadian jurisdiction where the vaccine is routinely doled out because of high rates of TB in the territory.

Read more:Snapshot of health care in Canada: What you need to know

Original post:
Canadian doctors develop new vaccine for tuberculosis