This event, led by Emeritus Professor Paul Fine, will explore the history of the BCG vaccine, its variable efficacy, role in global TB control and questions that remain around it.
The BCG vaccine is the most widely administered vaccine in human history, yet its story is one of enduring paradoxes.
In this seminar run jointly by LSHTM's Vaccine and TB Centres, Emeritus Professor Paul Fine will draw on his decades of research—including landmark trials in Malawi and extensive work on vaccine evaluation, mycobacterial epidemiology, and infection dynamics—to offer a long view of the BCG vaccine. He will reflect on what we have learned about BCG’s variable efficacy, its role in global tuberculosis control, and the questions that remain unresolved.
Join us after the seminar for a social and networking session at The Pumphandle Social.
Speaker
Professor Paul Fine
Professor Fine is Emeritus Professor of Communicable Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
Trained originally in zoology, veterinary medicine, parasitology and epidemiology, he worked in the smallpox eradication programme in India before joining LSHTM.
From 1978 to 2006, he directed the Karonga Prevention Study in northern Malawi, one of Africa's longest-running epidemiological research programmes, which began with leprosy, expanded into a major BCG vaccine trial against leprosy and tuberculosis, and ultimately encompassed HIV research and demographic surveillance.
His research interests span infection dynamics, vaccine evaluation (efficacy, adverse reactions, and impact), mycobacterial diseases, and family studies. He has published extensively on BCG's variable efficacy and its implications for future tuberculosis vaccine development.
More recently, his work has addressed the non-specific effects of vaccines, the transmissibility of oral polio vaccine viruses, and optimising vaccination schedules in low- and middle-income countries
Event notices
- Please note that you can join this event in person or you can join the session remotely
- Please note that this session will not be recorded
Admission
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