Indonesia Pushes for Accelerating Procurement of Newest TB Vaccine

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin is pushing for expediting the provision of the latest Tuberculosis (TB) vaccine through the 37th Stop TB Partnership (STP) Board Meeting in Brasilia, Brazil.

The ministry's Communication and Public Service Bureau on Saturday stated that the TB vaccine could offer economically affordable protection and maintain the sustainability of community productivity.

"If we want to achieve TB elimination by 2030, we only have three years to develop the TB vaccine to be used in 2028. We must focus on development of the TB vaccine," the minister stated as a board member at the meeting.

The 37th STP Board Meeting, which took place on Friday (February 9), was a forum for collaboration and communication for organizations and individuals from various sectors that are committed to eradicating Tuberculosis.

Indonesia, as a country that is also affected by TB, has convinced all G20 member countries to make adequate investments for availability of the TB vaccine in the next three years, Sadikin remarked.

According to Sadikin, the TB vaccine currently available in the country is the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine as partial protection to prevent serious TB in babies and toddlers, but it does not provide enough protection to children and adults from TB.

Hence, he stated that the development of an effective TB vaccine should cover all age groups, especially for children and adults, with the ability to reduce incidence by 90 percent and lower mortality by 95 percent.

ANTARA

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