JAKARTA — Indonesia plans to run clinical trials of several vaccines to fight surging cases of tuberculosis (TB) in 2024, with concerns the disease might affect economic growth, ministers said on June 10.

The South-east Asian country has seen TB cases spike during the past few years, with the health ministry estimating there were over one million cases in 2023, compared to around 820,000 in 2020.

In 2022, deaths from TB in Indonesia reached around 134,000, the second highest in the world after India.

Three-quarters of the patients were in the productive age group and 45 per cent of all patients did not work, raising concerns that the spread of the disease is hurting economic activity, human development minister Muhadjir Effendy told a government meeting with provincial leaders.

The minister did not provide an estimate of the impact on growth.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said Indonesia plans to conduct a trial of TB vaccine developed by global pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline in July, involving 2,500 people.

The vaccine development is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Related

---