Every Hour 15 People Die Due To Tuberculosis, Vaccination Becomes Hope For Effective Prevention

JAKARTA - Handling tuberculosis (TB) is still a big challenge for the Indonesian health system. Although treatment continues to grow, the number of cases and the death rate due to TB is still high.

Indonesia currently accounts for about 10 percent of the total global TB cases, with 120,000130,000 deaths per year. This means that around 1516 people die every hour from this disease.

Under these conditions, TB control efforts cannot rely on just one approach, but require a combination of strategies including strengthening immunization, early detection, preventive treatment, and diagnostic innovation in the community.

Prof. DR. dr. Erlina Burhan, a National Researcher for the TB Vaccine, stressed that while waiting for the M72 vaccine, which is projected to be widely available in 2029, Indonesia needs to maximize existing strategies.

He mentioned the need for an innovative approach, including the development of portable diagnostic tools that allow live screening at the community level without having to rely on a central laboratory.

"In addition to vaccines and medicine, we need fast detection tools that can be directly used in the field. This is important to accelerate case findings and break the chain of transmission," Erlina explained in a webinar as quoted by ANTARA.

He revealed that although the success rate of TB treatment in Indonesia has reached 87%, there are still around 13 percent of patients who have not recovered.

This group has the potential to become a new source of infection in the community. Therefore, the TB elimination strategy in 2030 can only be achieved if various control efforts are carried out simultaneously and continuously.

Erlina also highlighted the importance of protecting vulnerable groups, such as babies under two years of age, HIV sufferers, and those who have latent TB, namely people infected with TB bacteria but have not shown symptoms. For this group, prevention can be done through vaccine administration, tuberculosis prevention therapy (TPT), or increased endurance.

Regarding vaccines, Erlina said that currently there are 15 TB vaccine candidates in global development. Four vaccines are in the initial phase (phase 1), three vaccines in the clinical trial phase 2A, two vaccines in phase 2B, and six vaccines have entered the third clinical trial stage. One of the most promising is the M72 vaccine.

The M72 vaccine has completed the recruitment of the third phase of clinical trials involving around 20,000 volunteers from various countries, including Switzerland, the US and Belgium. The initial research of this vaccine began in 1994 and was delayed due to funding constraints. However, support from the Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust then allowed the process to continue until the final stage at this time.

With the M72 vaccine as the leading candidate, there is new hope in global efforts to control TB. However, while waiting for its wide availability, Indonesia needs to continue to strengthen its early detection strategy, targeted treatment, and community-based approaches to reduce the transmission rate.