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2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration

Identifying victims in the Black Saturday bushfires

During the 2009 Black Saturday fires—Australia’s worst bushfire disaster to date—Indonesian experts headed to Victoria to help identify the bodies of the 173 victims.

Their support came as part of a collaborative initiative between the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (VIFM), and the Department of Police Medicine of the Indonesia National Police (Dokpol) which saw 20 Indonesian experts in forensic pathology, forensic odontology (which involves examining dental evidence) and DNA analysis work alongside VIFM and Victorian Police for over two months.

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2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration

Healthcare for the ‘missing middle’

Around 100 million Indonesians don’t have health coverage, despite a bold national overhaul in 2014 of Indonesian healthcare aimed at bringing all the historically-fragmented insurance schemes together into the Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional (JKN), or National Health Insurance Programme. Indonesian and Australian researchers want to know how this can be improved.

The scheme sought to capture those who fall through the gaps, to achieve universal health coverage for all by 2019. Referred to as the ‘missing middle,’ they’re the people who aren’t destitute and receiving government help, but are still too poor to afford basic healthcare.

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2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration

What’s killing people?

Planning a nation’s health is challenging when you don’t have accurate information on the causes of death.

The Indonesian National Institute for Health Research and Development is working with nine regional universities and the Australian National University to build capacity for a national mortality register.

Credit for banner image: Sanofi Pasteur creative commons

2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration

A five-in-one vaccine for all Indonesian children

Indonesia is rolling out a five-in-one vaccine that they plan to deliver in a single shot to every Indonesian child to protect them against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib).

The rollout is supported by the Australian Government through GAVI, the global vaccine alliance. The vaccine is manufactured by Bio Farma, who also hope to add rotavirus to the vaccines in the future.

2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration

Identifying the Bali bombers; testing for bird flu; and better selection of anti-malarial drugs

Testing for flu, malarial drug resistance, and identifying the Bali bombers are all outcomes of an Australia-Indonesia medical research initiative that begun in 1997 and continues today.

The original Australia-Indonesia Medical Research Initiative agreement between the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne and the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology in Jakarta was conceived and funded by the Indonesian Minister of Research and Technology and the Australian Government, and designed to boost the capacity of the Indonesian labs while enabling more transfer of ideas and skills between the two countries.

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2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration

Boosting vaccine performance

Vaccines work best when they include an adjuvant, something that boosts your immune system’s reaction to the vaccine.

University of Melbourne researchers have recreated a fragment of a bacteria protein that activates white blood cells.

In 2012, they signed a research agreement with Bio Farma to help them turn their idea into a novel vaccine platform that could enhance vaccines for hepatitis, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, and other diseases.

2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration

Detecting high risk pregnancies in Indonesia

Women in Indonesia were 21 times more likely to die from childbirth than women in Australia in 2015.

Many pregnant women in Indonesia, particularly in remote areas, do not regularly visit health clinics, and so complications are not detected and dealt with early enough.

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2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration

Can sunshine help prevent pneumonia?

A link between vitamin D deficiency and pneumonia is being investigated in two studies by Indonesian and Australian scientists in Indonesia.

They’re tracking the incidence and severity of respiratory tract infections in early childhood,including the common cold, asthma,pneumonia, and bronchiolitis, in hospitals and the community, in the hope of providing more information for treatment and management for respiratory diseases.

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2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration

Ultra-sensitive dengue detection

“Dengue has a significant impact on both Australia and Indonesia—the disease is hyper-endemic in Indonesia and affects the daily life of people living in the country,” says Dr Tedjo Sasmono of the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology in Jakarta.

Their researchers have been working with The University of Queensland to create a new way to screen blood for dengue virus.

It’s the result of a joint-research project on dengue diagnostics, initiated in 2015 and funded by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage grant in collaboration with the Australian Red Cross Blood Service.

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2016, Australia-Indonesia Collaboration

The future of Indonesian mental health

Scientists are bringing together the knowledge from 300 mental health experts in a multi-disciplinary project to reimagine the future of mental healthcare in Indonesia.

Conducting interviews about policy, key challenges, case studies and patient groups, they’re looking to understand how new practices can fit into the historical, sociological and anthropological aspects of psychiatry in Indonesia.

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