Indonesia ramps up fight against tuberculosis amid concerns on economic impact

Cansino Biologics

10/06/2024 07:20

JAKARTA, June 10 (Reuters) - Indonesia plans to run
clinical trials of several vaccines to fight surging cases of
tuberculosis (TB) this year, with concerns the disease might
affect economic growth, ministers said on Monday.
    The Southeast Asian country has seen TB cases spike during
the past few years, with the health ministry estimating there
were over 1 million cases in 2023, compared to around 820,000 in
2020.
    In 2022, deaths from TB in Indonesia reached around 134,000,
the second highest in the world after India.
    Three-quarters of the patients were in the productive age
group and 45% of all patients did not work, raising concerns
that the spread of the disease is hurting economic activity,
human development minister Muhadjir Effendy told a government
meeting with provincial leaders. The minister did not provide an
estimate of the impact on growth.
    Health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said Indonesia plans to
conduct a trial of TB vaccine developed by global pharmaceutical
company GlaxoSmithKline  GSK.L  in July, involving 2,500 people.
The vaccine development is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation. 
    A clinical trial for a vaccine made by China's CanSino
Biologics  6185.HK  is also expected this year, Budi said.
    "We hope to be one of the first countries to do tuberculosis
vaccination," Budi told the same meeting.
    "We're also in the stage to conduct a clinical trial for an
mRNA vaccine that is being developed by BioNTech  BNTX.O , that
had founded COVID vaccine for Pfizer," Budi said.
    In the same meeting, home affairs minister Tito Karnavian
ordered provincial leaders to set up task forces to detect TB
infections.
    Indonesia aims to lower its mortality rate from TB by 80% to
only six deaths per 100,000 lives by 2030, Budi said. 

 (Reporting by Dewi Kurniawati and Stefanno Sulaiman; Editing by
Gayatri Suroyo and Lincoln Feast.)
 ((Stefanno.Sulaiman@thomsonreuters.com;))