Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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March 28, 2007

Indonesia to Share Bird Flu Samples with WHO
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=16D46D9:A6F02AD83191E16039FE82C95AE5EB559574F7DCC14957C0 Decision comes
after UN health agency agreed to help protect Indonesia against
overpriced flu drugs The Indonesian government will again share
samples of the H5NI bird flu virus with the World Health Organization,
after the U.N. agency agreed to help protect Indonesia against
overpriced flu drugs. VOA's Nancy-Amelia Collins reports from Jakarta.







Indonesian officials take samples from chicken at poultry market in
Denpasar, 26 Mar 2007Indonesia's decided to resume sharing bird flu
after Jakarta and the World Health Organization settled a dispute that
has been simmering since early this year.

The agreement was reached at a meeting in Jakarta with health
officials from more than a dozen nations and the World Health
Organization. The meeting was called to coordinate work on the H5N1
virus, which causes bird flu.

Indonesia stopped sending virus samples to the WHO this year after an
Australian drug company used the Indonesian strain of the virus to
develop a vaccine without Indonesia's knowledge.

Jakarta fears its virus samples will be used to develop vaccines that
poor nations like Indonesia cannot afford.

On Tuesday, the WHO agreed that it would not share samples of viruses
with pharmaceutical companies unless the country where the virus
originated gave its permission. That agreement was formally signed by
the WHO and Indonesia as the three-day meeting ended Wednesday.



Indonesia's minister of health, Siti Fadilah Supari, says Jakarta is
now satisfied.

She says because the WHO has agreed not to share the virus samples
with drug companies without permission from the originating countries,
Jakarta will begin to send the samples immediately.

WHO officials were worried the dispute could slow the development of a
bird flu vaccine for humans.

But WHO Assistant Director-General for Communicable Disease David
Heymann says poor nations should have the same rights as rich ones.

"Industrialized countries negotiate regularly for vaccines, and they
have got stockpiles and they get vaccines," he said. "There is no
reason that developing countries should not do the same thing."

As the meeting ended, Jakarta announced three more deaths from the
H5N1 virus, added to the 63 confirmed in Indonesia by the WHO.

There have been more 280 deaths in a dozen countries since the virus
reappeared in 2003. The majority of infections have occurred in
Southeast Asia, and Indonesia has suffered the highest number of
deaths of any individual country.


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