Dengue fever infection is a problem that still infect many people in Indonesia and other tropical countries. This disease could cause a death after the patient having fever and lose lots of hemoglobin on their blood. Unfortunately, there is still no licensed vaccine for dengue virus or DENV. There was a research about dengue fever vaccine, but the vaccine contained pork which is prohibited for most people in Indonesia who are Muslims.
Dr. dr. Christina Safira Whinie Lestari, M.Kes., researched about the possibility of making a vaccine from non-structural recombinant (NS1) protein on dengue virus serotype 1 (DENV-1) Indonesia strain. Her 4 years research at Doctoral Program of Faculty of Medicine of Universitas Indonesia proved that those protein could be the vaccine candidate after being tested on mice. By this research, Lestari could defend her dissertation in front of the board of examiners and got 3,92 score (very good) at Senat Akademik Room, Faculty of Medicine of Universitas Indonesia, Salemba, on Wednesday, April 22nd 2015.
“The first priority on this research was the vaccine should be halal. We used NS1 protein as the substitute of structural protein to avoid antibody dependence enhancement that could aggravate dengue fever (on patient). We also used Indonesia strain that represent dengue fever in Indonesia so that it could give the right immune for Indonesia people,” said her at Salemba.
