Vaccines are usually very specific in their function. However, it would be nice to have more universal vaccines – it would make testing procedures that much safer. And maybe it is possible that some vaccines are already more universal than people think.
For example, scientists at the University of Adelaide have found that the meningococcal B vaccine could improve protection against gonorrhea.
Meningococcal B meningitis is an infection caused by Neisseria meningitidis bacteria. This disease can be extremely severe and is often deadly. It typically attacks younger people and even survivors face life-long consequences. Meanwhile gonorrhea is a completely different sexually transmitted bacterial infection, caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
Gonorrhea can cause severe complications, such as infertility and increased risk of HIV/AIDS. It is nowhere near as lethal as meningitis, but if left unchecked in can spread to the blood and cause disseminated gonococcal infection, which leads to arthritis, tenosynovitis and a number of other conditions.
Meningitis will always be a dangerous infection, but since 2014 there is a meningococcal B vaccine, which is administered at the recommendation of healthcare providers. Researchers noticed that two doses of the meningococcal B vaccine can actually provide some protection from gonorrhea, especially in the younger population. But how effective that protection actually is?
Scientists conducted an observational study and found that young adults who received two doses of meningococcal B vaccine also got 33 % effective protection against gonorrhea. Which is not insignificant coverage. Scientists are actually quite optimistic about it, because the meningococcal B vaccine is going to be used for its primary purpose and recipients of it will get that extra protection against gonorrhea. It is urgently needed, because, as the World Health Organisation estimates, there are more than 106 million cases of gonorrhea worldwide and this number is growing rapidly.
Professor Helen Marshall, lead author of the study, said: “This research will feed into WHO’s vaccine roadmap to evaluate the evidence about the ability of vaccines to prevent gonorrhoea. Traditionally, treatment for gonorrhoea has relied on antibiotics, but as these have become increasingly less effective due to antibiotic resistant strains, it is vital that we explore new and improved measures to battle this infection.”
Antibiotics are losing their effectiveness and our abilities to treat bacterial infections are going to be reduced. This means that prevention will be the best treatment, so we will have to come up with more effective and more universal vaccines.
Source: University of Adelaide
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