[Ip-health] New York Times: U.S. Pushing for Release of Flu Data

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/24/health/24flu.html

New York Times

 August 24, 2006

 U.S. Pushing for Release of Flu Data
 By DONALD McNEIL

 In an effort to speed flu research and set an example for other
 nations, the United States announced this week that it had placed the
 genetic sequences of about 650 flu viruses in a public database.

 But the sequences did not include any highly pathogenic A(H5N1) flu -
 the strain that has killed 140 people in 10 countries and is
 threatening to turn into a world pandemic - because it has not been
 found inside the United States. Instead, the sequences are of
 seasonal human flus and animal flus isolated here.

 The agency is trying to put pressure on Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam
 and China, where the avian flu has infected humans and is mutating
 rapidly, to release sequences found inside their borders.

 "We hope these initiatives will set the stage for other countries to
 adopt similar approaches," said Dr. Nancy Cox, director of the
 influenza division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 Researchers, laboratories, health agencies and various national
 governments have been at loggerheads over the issue for months. Some
 scientists have been accused of slowing flu research by hoarding
 sequences until they can publish scientific papers, which can take
 months.

 The World Health Organization, which considers all laboratory samples
 submitted to it the property of the submitting governments, has
 posted all its sequences in a password-protected archive. In March,
 an Italian veterinarian who sequenced genes from birds infected in
 Africa and Europe refused to put her data there, released it publicly
 and urged others to do the same.

 Also at issue is the anger of poor nations like Indonesia and
 Thailand, which release data gathered in their countries and then see
 it used by private companies to make vaccines for sale in the West at
 prices they cannot afford.

 At the gathering of the world's health ministers in Geneva in May,
 the Thai delegation tried to pass a resolution preventing any
 commercial use of their data, said Edward Hammond, the American
 director of the Sunshine Project, an organization based in Texas and
 Germany that opposes the creation of biological weapons.

 "They're saying 'We want to play ball, but we resent this coming back
 to us in the form of a business deal,' " Mr. Hammond said.
 In Thailand, the flu epidemic is largely under control, but it is out
 of control in poultry flocks in Indonesia, where 46 people have died
 from the disease, more than in any other nation.

 After months of pressure, Indonesia recently agreed to release avian
 and human sequences found there. The C.D.C. praised that decision in
 releasing its own data.

 One Indonesian cluster now being investigated, in Cikelet village in
 the Garut district of West Java province, appears to consist of up to
 20 suspect cases, according to Indonesian news reports. Only three
 have been confirmed by laboratory tests. A local health official said
 Tamiflu antiviral tablets had been given to 2,400 residents of the
 district as a preventive measure.