Roundup: Gates TB vaccine grant; NEJM paper on renewed typhoid vaccination efforts

Two items in the news recently regarding vaccines against TB and typhoid...

-- Last week, the Gates Foundation announced a $200 million, 5-year grant to the Aeras Global TB Foundation, providing renewed support for its work next-generation tuberculosis vaccines. Here are press releases from Gates and Aeras and coverage from Reuters and the Seattle Times.

-- A perspective in last week's New England Journal of Medicine (dated September 13) advocated "Putting Typhoid Vaccination on the Global Health Agenda" (subscription required for full text). The paper notes that the number of deaths attributed to typhoid are comparable or greater than those caused by cervical cancer and meningococcal meningitis, yet typhoid vaccination "has largely fallen off the international radar screen" while HPV and meningococcal vaccines receive considerable attention. The paper reviews probable causes for this development and the potential of vaccination as part of global typhoid control efforts.