May 16, 2007

Indonesia resumes sharing bird flu samples with WHO

Indonesia has resumed sharing samples of the H5N1 bird flu virus with the World Health Organisation (WHO) after a five-month gap, Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari announced.

Sending of H5N1 specimens to the WHO collaborating centre in Tokyo has been resume, Supari told the WHO's annual assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

Indonesia, which has the world's highest human death toll from bird flu, stopped sharing virus with the WHO last December, expressing its displeasure at the vaccine prices set by foreign companies who used the samples Indonesia provided to manufacture vaccines.

Indonesia, along with other developing countries, say they want to make sure that they have access to human vaccines at reasonable prices.

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl says Indonesia's samples are of vital importance as there is a need to track how the virus is evolving and allow vaccine companies to know where they should concentrate their efforts to prevent a pandemic.

In late March, Indonesia reached an agreement with the WHO to begin sharing virus samples although further hiccups have occurred along the way.

The announcement was the first confirmation that Indonesia has sent the H5N1 samples abroad to a WHO-approved laboratory.