Dengue fever will steal a month of your life. Two weeks bedridden, two more weeks recovering. But there’s a vaccine that can prevent it—and it’s available in Bali right now.
One-in-four expats gets dengue fever (demam berdarah) within two years of moving to Bali. If you haven’t had it yet, consider yourself lucky—but don’t count on that luck holding.
Here’s what dengue actually looks like: Two weeks completely bedridden with severe headaches, high fever, crushing joint and muscle pain, and often a rash. Locals call it “break bone fever” for a reason. You won’t be working. You won’t be enjoying Bali. You’ll be counting the hours until your next Panadol dose. In about 20% of cases, patients need hospitalization for up to a week. And here’s the kicker: there is no specific treatment for dengue. You just have to ride it out.
Then comes the aftermath: another two weeks of exhaustion, brain fog, and weakness before you feel like yourself again. Plans cancelled. Work disrupted. A full month stolen. And that’s the common outcome. In severe cases, dengue can progress to hemorrhagic fever, which can be fatal.
For the cost of two shots, three months apart, you can dramatically reduce your risk of all of this for up to five years. And it’s cheaper getting vaccinated in Bali than abroad.
Meet Qdenga: The Dengue Vaccine You Need to Know About
There’s a proven dengue vaccine called Qdenga, developed by Takeda Pharmaceuticals and released in December 2022. It’s estimated to have been administered to 12 million people worldwide with minimal side effects. Europe approved it for ages 4 and up with no upper age limit. The World Health Organization (WHO) endorses it. Countries like India and Brazil are scaling up manufacturing capacity to produce 50 million doses per year each.
So why haven’t you heard about it?
The effectiveness: In clinical trials, Qdenga showed 63% protection for previously infected individuals and 50% for infection-naive individuals at 4.5 years post-vaccination. More importantly? The vaccine reduces hospital admissions related to dengue by 84%. Even if you do get infected, you’re dramatically less likely to end up in a hospital bed.
The side effects: Minimal. The most commonly reported side effect is soreness at the injection site for a few hours. At Padma, we’ve administered hundreds of Qdenga vaccines with the same results—temporary soreness, nothing more.
The basics: Two doses, 90 days apart. You’ll have some protection after the first dose, but full efficacy kicks in after the second shot. Protection lasts approximately five years.
The cost: 900,000 IDR per dose (1.8 million IDR for the complete series, 180 AUD / 110 USD).
The Access Challenge — and How Padma Made It Work
Here’s where things get complicated. BPOM, Indonesia’s pharmaceutical regulator, approved Qdenga—but with a catch. They restricted it to adults up to age 45, based on the fact that the Phase 3 trials with 28,000 participants didn’t include enough people over 45 to reach statistical significance for that age group.
The restriction isn’t based on safety concerns. It’s based on a questionable interpretation of trial data. Meanwhile, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) reviewed the same evidence and saw no reason for an age cap. A mature immune system should respond just as well—if not better—to the vaccine. And dengue certainly doesn’t care how old you are when it knocks you flat for a month.
At Padma, we looked at the BPOM restriction and asked a simple question: does it actually make medical sense?
After extensive consultation with our senior physicians and reviewing the international data, we concluded that it doesn’t. The EMA authorization for ages 4+ with no upper limit is based on the same clinical evidence and sound medical reasoning. So we made a decision: we follow the EMA guidelines, not the arbitrary BPOM age cap.
If you’re over 45, we require you to sign an additional waiver acknowledging that BPOM’s approval only extends to age 45, but that international regulators have no such restriction. You get the information, you make the choice, and you get vaccinated.
It’s a common sense solution to a bureaucratic problem. And as far as we know, we’re the only clinic in Bali doing it.
This is exactly the kind of practical problem-solving that defines Padma Care—looking at healthcare obstacles and asking “does this actually make sense?” instead of just accepting the status quo.
How to Get Vaccinated
You don’t need to be a Padma Care member to get the Qdenga vaccine—anyone can schedule an appointment at our clinic. But here’s where membership makes a difference: Padma Care members can receive the vaccine at home, on their schedule, in their villa. No clinic visit required.
This service carries a small additional fee but is only available to Padma Care members.
That’s the kind of practical, intelligent healthcare that Padma Care is built around—finding solutions to problems that other providers accept as unsolvable, and delivering care in a way that actually fits your life in Bali.
Ready to protect yourself?
Book your vaccine via Whatsapp @ +62 813 3939 4907 or via email at mailto:padmacare@pbmcgroup.com
To learn more about our membership model visit padmacare.pbmcgroup.com/our-year-in-bali/. You can sign up right from the homepage, and if you use this link you can get your third month free (350,000 IDR / 35 AUD Discount).
