Shared challenges, big outcomes

It might start with a fever, or even shaking chills. Maybe there will be shortness of breath, or a cough. It might lead to a loss of energy or appetite, a headache or chest pain. Regardless, there is little doubt pneumonia remains a serious disease for people around the world, and particularly for those in South-East Asia. 

However it is children who are most at risk; the major cause of death of those under the age of five globally remains pneumonia, with infants and toddlers under two years old the most susceptible. Approximately half of the global child pneumonia cases occur in South-East Asia. Many of these are at high-risk of also suffering from vitamin D deficiency. But how many, and is there a direct link?

Dr Margaret Danchin is hopeful answers can be found, and will use a recent Australia-Indonesia Centre grant to do so.  “While there is no published data on the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among infants and young children with pneumonia in Indonesia, we know that a recent study of 48 districts in the country reported that more than one-third of children aged between two and five years had vitamin D deficiency.

“Nutritional deficiencies are a major health concern in Indonesia. To date, concerted efforts have concentrated on micronutrient supplementation programs with vitamin A, iron, zinc and iodine. But vitamin D deficiency is increasingly recognised in communities close to the equator in the South-East Asian region due to lifestyle changes and cultural practices that limit exposure to ultraviolet radiation.”

For Dr Danchin, Professor Steve Graham and her Indonesian collaborators, the grant will provide them with a chance to provide original data on the epidemiology of severe pneumonia in Indonesian infants, and on the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among this high-risk group. And real outcomes could result sooner rather than later.

“The study will provide potential new avenues for intervention for the control of pneumonia in a resource-poor setting, and also valuable data to inform new policies targeted at improving the management of pneumonia in both community and hospital settings in Indonesia.

“Another aim of the program is to better provide skills to local health care providers – from community doctors to midwives – to help them identify childhood pneumonia according to World Health Organization criteria, leading to better treatment, management and outcomes of the disease.”

Dr Danchin’s project with Professor Yati Soenarto and Dr Vicka Oktaria, who will be conducting the study as part of her PhD, both from Universitas Gadjah Mada, was one of five University of Melbourne projects to receive funding from the Australia-Indonesia Centre’s inaugural ‘Small Projects’ program. There is a long history of collaboration between the groups, dating back nearly 30 years, and since 2008 for Dr Danchin.

Associate Professor Colin Duffield will work with Universitas Indonesia to provide advice on Public Private Partnership models for the City of Palu in Central Sulawesi, while Professor Marimuthu Palaniswami will run a joint workshop on smart cities with colleagues at Institute Teknologi Bandung.

Meanwhile, Associate Professor Nicholas Hutchins’ work on energy sustainability in maritime and air transport systems, particularly with surface drag, will be investigated further with the Institut Teknologi Surabaya, and Associate Professor Lu Aye will join with peers from Institut Pertanian Bogor to evaluate technologies for energy produced by biomass and waste in Indonesia. 

Professor Simon Evans, Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) says the projects cover an important and diverse range of expertise at the University.

“These projects demonstrate the breadth and depth of the collaborations between the University’s researchers and their counterparts at some of Indonesia’s leading universities. In particular, these projects and the many other outstanding proposals we received demonstrate the desire to extend those relationships and to contribute solutions to shared challenges in health, energy, infrastructure and food and agriculture.”

The Australia-Indonesia Centre was established in October 2013. Based at Monash University, the Centre also counts the University of Melbourne, Monash University, ANU, the University of Sydney and the CSIRO as co-participants. 

The Centre’s main aims are to expand collaborative research between the two nations, strengthen bilateral linkages and relationships and improve Australians’ understanding of contemporary Indonesia.

www.australiaindonesiacentre.org