Two new stories on the BBC today made me smile for different reasons. Both involved medical trials. The first is the promising news of development of a new, more effective vaccine for TB. Progress in fighting diseases of poverty is often painfully slow as there isn't much money in it for drug companies. Lets hope they can develop an effective and affordable vaccine for those who need it most.
The second shows just how easy it can be to get participants for drug trials when the drug on trial is CHOCOLATE!
TB vaccine enters new trial stage
 The trial is being carried out on children in South Africa |
The first new TB vaccine for 80 years has started to be given to infants in the next stage of trials, according to Oxford University researchers.
The experimental vaccine MVA85A is to be given to nearly 2,784 infants in South Africa to test its effectiveness.
Oxford University researcher Dr Helen McShane said: "This trial will hopefully show that the vaccine can protect people from getting TB."
The first stage of the trials in 2007 proved that the jab was safe.
TB kills more than two million people worldwide each year.
If the latest tests are successful the researchers hope the vaccine will be available by 2016.
The new drug would be given alongside the current BCG vaccine.
It works by stimulating immune system cells called T-cells to produce a stronger response to the BCG jab.
Chocolate plea gets 1,500 replies
 Hundreds of people replied about the potential benefits of dark chocolate |
An appeal for volunteers to help researchers see how dark chocolate might help fight disease has attracted 1,500 responses worldwide in a day.
The scientists in Aberdeen aim to assess how flavonoids, found naturally in cocoa, could fend off heart disease.
Thursday's BBC Scotland news website story had more than 200,000 hits, and researchers said it sparked replies from as far afield as America.
Forty volunteers aged between 18 and 70 will be selected to take part.
They will be asked to eat a cocoa-rich dark chocolate specially made for the study, standard chocolate, or white chocolate.
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