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New drug for infants injects fresh hopes for malaria-free future
As one of the countries hardest hit by malaria in Southeast Asia, Indonesia stands to benefit from the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine that is currently being trialed for children aged five months and over in three African countries.
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Malawi is spearheading large-scale pilot tests for the world's most advanced experimental malaria vaccine in a bid to prevent the disease that kills close to half a million people each year. (Shutterstock/Parilov)
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ndonesia’s medical community has welcomed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendation for a new malaria vaccine trialed for infants in Africa, which could become a “useful” tool to get rid of the disease by 2030.
As one of the countries hardest hit by malaria in Southeast Asia, based on 2020 WHO data, Indonesia stands to benefit from the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) malaria vaccine for children aged five months and older.
Currently, there are still 24 cities and regencies around the country that are categorized as areas with high malaria transmissibility. More than 530,000 infants, who have no means of protection from the disease, still live in such areas, said Didik Budijanto, the Health Ministry’s director of contagious, vector-borne and zoonotic diseases.
The new drug, he believed, would be helpful in decreasing the number of deaths from malaria in high-risk areas.
“This [population] group does not have any innate protection against malaria. As such, the vaccine can help protect infants in areas of high transmissibility, or those who wish to live in one, from death due to malaria,” the official told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
“The vaccine is an additional useful intervention on top of our existing efforts in eliminating malaria,” he added.
Didik said the government was currently reviewing the WHO’s advice and coordinating with Indonesian scientists and the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) to see whether it would be feasible to run clinical trials with the new vaccine locally and aid in the local development of a drug.
