Bio Farma Working To Prevent Typhoid Disease

Nusa Dua, Bali (Antara Bali) - The director of marketing at Indonesia's leading vaccine manufacturer, Bio Farma, Mahendra Suhardono, said here on Saturday that the company is encouraging the government to prevent typhoid disease by developing a vaccine.

"Bio Farma is developing a typhoid vaccine by using transferred technologies from the Sabin Vaccine Institute, in cooperation with IVI Korea," Mahendra added.

As a state-owned enterprise, Bio Farma is working to meet domestic needs in vaccines thorough innovation he added.

According to Mahendra, Bio Farma is responsible for achieving national self-sufficiency in the production of vaccines by manufacturing the typhoid conjugate vaccine, which is now in its clinical-testing phase, and is expected to be available to the public by 2018.

Dr. Bonita Effendi, from the University of Indonesia, said the death risk due to typhoid in Indonesia has reached 1.25 percent, and there are several provinces with typhoid infection rates above 1.6 percent, including Aceh, Bengkulu, East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, Banten, West Java, Papua, West Papua, Gorontalo, and East Kalimantan.

This increased infection rate has been attributed to the public`s low rate of following clean and healthy lifestyles, such as washing hands before eating, and using clean water for household activities, she added.

A representative from the Coalition against Typhoid (CaT), Brian Davis, said there currently are two vaccines that have been distributed in India.

Further, vaccine technology has been transferred to three vaccine producers who are carrying out clinical tests within the next twelve months, including Bio Farma.

Data obtained from the Coalition against Typhoid (CaT) also noted that there are 3.4 million invasive non-typhoid salmonella disease cases in Indonesia, in which 681,316 people have died. (WDY)