February 22, 2008

 

Indonesia sends bird flu samples to WHO; standoff may be over

 

 

Indonesia sent 12 bird flu samples to a World Health Organization laboratory this week after receiving assurances its rights to any vaccines produced from them would be recognized, the health minister said.

 

The country had been refusing to send samples to WHO since January 2007, saying poor nations needed guarantees that any pandemic vaccines developed from the virus would be affordable and available to them.

 

It was unclear whether Indonesia would now routinely share samples, a move that would effectively end a standoff that experts have said could jeopardize global efforts to battle bird flu.

 

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari told The Associated Press late Thursday that 12 samples from recent bird flu patients were sent on Tuesday to the WHO-affiliated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, in the US.

 

Supari has been calling for WHO to change its 50-year-old influenza virus sharing system so that developing countries that hand over samples retain the rights to any vaccines produced from them.

 

Currently, poor countries are obliged to send samples to WHO, which then makes them available to pharmaceutical companies to use in vaccine production. Wealthy nations have stockpiled tonnes of bird flu vaccines, while Indonesia has limited supplies.

 

WHO and Indonesia have engaged in numerous rounds of talks trying to find a solution that would ensure developing countries have equal access to a pandemic vaccine at an affordable price.

 

Indonesia has recorded 105 deaths from bird, almost half the global tally, according to WHO.

 

Scientists have warned that Indonesia, which has millions of backyard chickens and poor medical facilities, is a potential hot spot for a global bird flu pandemic.