Need for TB vaccine inspired doctor to carry out key research

LACK of an effective TB vaccine and the high rise in its contraction rate was the source of inspiration for Cameroon-born University of Cape Town (UCT) researcher Dr Mushi Shey, who was awarded a five-year funding scholarship from the Wellcome Trust to test his groundbreaking research.

The Wellcome Trust is a UK organisation that recognises and funds researchers.

Shey, 38, said that while studying undergraduate medicine in Cameroon he was tasked to investigate various vaccines and how they worked.

“I focused on TB, looking at the uptake and how people generally get it. There is a BCS (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine primarily used against tuberculosis that babies get, but I noticed that it was not too good. It was the only vaccine and I didn’t understand how, while it is available, there were still people contracting TB. That is where my curiosity started,” he said.

Shey said that compared to his home country, South Africa had the highest mortality TB rate in the world. He said the ratio was 781 per 100 000 people.

The researcher said he came to study at UCT where he dedicated 10 years of his life to researching vaccines for the two highest killers on the African continent, TB and HIV.

Just two weeks ago, Shey received news that would change his life and gain him independent recognition. “When I heard that I had won a prestigious Wellcome Intermediate Fellowship in Public Health and Tropical Medicine in recognition of my efforts to decode the natural immunity to TB present in some healthcare workers I was beyond excited. I had to pinch myself a couple of times; I am a medical scientist; this is my dream,” he laughed.

For the next five years Shey will be testing and investigating his research with the aim of finding an effective TB vaccine.

“The project is focusing on healthcare workers in South Africa. Healthcare workers do the diagnosis and treatment of TB and are therefore more exposed to it,” he said.

Shey said 10% of highly exposed healthcare MONDAY JULY 16 2018 workers are resistant to TB.

He believes this natural resistance could be due to a variation in the numbers and function of so-called mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells. Once these MAIT cells come into contact with bacteria-infected cells, they rapidly produce molecules that can directly kill these cells, so limiting or preventing infection.

“We want to find what that thing is that makes them resistant and from there we will be able to develop a vaccine.”

The researcher will be screening 1 500 healthcare workers; he will start his research in Cape Town and then spread to other provinces visiting TB Clinics, he said.

Thereafter he will start working on the vaccine. – zodidi.dano@inl.co.za

WE WANT TO FIND WHAT THAT THING IS THAT MAKES THEM RESISTANT AND FROM THERE WE CAN DEVELOP A VACCINE