April 23, 2007

 

China preparing to send human bird flu samples to WHO

 

 

China is preparing to send updated virus samples from human bird flu cases to the World Health Organization, state media reported Friday (Apr 20), days after the WHO said it had not received any for a year.

 

The Health Ministry "will send two recent samples of the virus and one from a Beijing patient who was infected in 2003," the China Daily newspaper said, citing a ministry official.

 

Five new human cases have been reported in China since Beijing last sent samples to the WHO in April and May of 2006. The government also disclosed last year that new tests on the body of a 24-year-old soldier who died in 2003 confirmed that he succumbed to the disease.

 

While sharing virus samples is not mandated by the WHO, they are needed to produce diagnostic tools and vaccines. The lack of cooperation, experts say, could slow efforts to track diseases and develop vaccines and other strategies to deal with them.

 

The Health Ministry said it was trying to ensure that the samples are "dispatched safely and smoothly," according to the newspaper.

 

"The process of handing over the samples is still under way," it cited the ministry as saying.

 

A man who answered the telephone at the ministry Friday said no one was available to provide a statement.

 

China has already sent six samples of the human bird flu virus to WHO's designated laboratories. Two of them were dispatched in December 2005 and the others in May 2006, the China Daily said.

 

In the past, China has been slow to share animal samples and international health experts have repeatedly complained about Chinese foot-dragging in cooperating on investigating emerging diseases like bird flu and the SARS pneumonia.