Dengue Fever Still a Major Killer in Indonesia, but Vaccine Research Brings Rays of Hope

Jakarta Globe, Dessy Sagita, June 14, 2011

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More than four decades after Indonesia first declared war on dengue fever, the government on Monday conceded it was still struggling to win the battle against the deadly disease.

“The challenge is enormous, it is extremely difficult to keep the disease under control,” Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said after opening the first Asean Dengue Day conference in Jakarta.

Dengue fever was first detected in 1968 in Surabaya and Jakarta. More than 50 cases were found at the time and more than half of the victims died. More than 40 years later, Endang said, Indonesia had the largest dengue fever problem of any country in Southeast Asia.

The Ministry of Health reported that last year more than 150,000 people across Indonesia were infected, and more than 1,400 people, mostly children, died of the disease. By comparison, in Thailand last year there were 57,000 infections and 70 fatalities.

According to the World Health Organization, Indonesia accounted for 57 percent of all dengue cases in the region in 2006, including almost 70 percent of deaths from the disease.

Endang said that given Indonesia’s vast land area and high population, it was nearly impossible to eradicate the breeding places for the disease-carrying mosquitoes.

Asean Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan said that dengue fever was a serious problem not only for Indonesia but also for other Asean countries.

“Every year 51 million people are infected and 20,000 people, especially children, die unnecessarily,” he said.

Endang said dengue fever vaccine could be the best approach to curb the number of infections and fatalities in Indonesia. While no vaccine is available yet, a clinical trial is under way in five Asian countries, including Indonesia. Some 2,000 children in Jakarta, Bandung, and Bali are participating in the clinical trial.

It will run over the next five years.

Endang said there was no guarantee yet about the efficacy of the vaccine but so far it has been proven safe. The University of Indonesia, Airlangga University in Surabaya, and the Ministry’s research and development agency are researching the vaccine.

“They are all still in the early stage, but I dream one day we will be able to produce our own vaccine and protect our children from dengue fever,” she said.