About 500 soldiers stand in military formation at a port on Java after disembarking from their transport ship carrying them home after months of duties in remote malarious eastern Indonesia. Almost half of the soldiers standing here have dormant hypnozoites of Plasmodium vivax in their livers --180 of them volunteered for a randomised trial of primaquine against further relapse during one year of follow up on malaria-free Java. The Eijkman Institute of Molecular Biology closely collaborates with the health research services of the Indonesian Armed Forces and OUCRU Indonesia has helped develop this unique experimental model for a number of trials involving drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics.
