[Ip-health] Wall Street Journal: Indonesia to Resume Sharing Bird-Flu Virus Samples

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117499768532250294.html

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Indonesia to Resume Sharing
Bird-Flu Virus Samples
By NICHOLAS ZAMISKA
March 27, 2007 9:52 a.m.

HONG KONG -- Indonesia will resume sharing bird-flu virus samples
immediately, the country's health minister said, ending a months-long
row over ensuring access to life-saving vaccines for poor countries in
the event of a pandemic.

The unexpected agreement, announced at the end of a two-day meeting
organized by the World Health Organization in Jakarta, means that
scientists around the world will be able to study the freshest and
potentially most important strains of the avian influenza virus.
Companies, for now, won't have access to those strains, which can be
used to make up-to-date vaccines.

"We will keep those viruses and not share them with any industry" until
a more specific framework has been hammered out, said David Heymann,
the WHO's representative for avian influenza.

Making the announcement Tuesday, Indonesian health minister Siti
Fadilah Supari declined to say how many virus samples have accumulated
in Indonesian laboratories since the country stopped sharing samples
with international scientists in December.

Earlier this year, Indonesia decided to stop sharing its virus samples
with international scientists. Dr. Supari complained that sharing those
samples helps foreign companies to develop vaccines that ordinary
Indonesians would likely never be able to afford, or have access to. On
Tuesday, she called the past system of sharing samples "more dangerous
than the threat of an H5N1 pandemic itself."

In Indonesia, bird flu has so far killed 63 of the 81 people infected
in Indonesia since 2005, according to the WHO.

Write to Nicholas Zamiska at nicholas.zamiska@wsj.com6
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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
voice +41.22.791.6727
fax +41.22.723.2988
mobile +41 76 508 0997
thiru@keionline.org