unless nations work together the consequences could be catastrophic

The World Health Organisation which is responsible for coordinating the world’s response to the bird flu virus has designed and launched a system which will enable individual nations to monitor and track the progress of the H5N1 influenza virus around the world. The system comes in the form of an electronic database which can be seen on the World Health Organisation’s web site and shows which influenza samples were submitted by various countries and whether the samples were shared with scientists and researchers around the world. The database is also designed to let individuals see the results done on testing with the viruses and whether the individual viruses are resistant to various influenza medications.

The World Health Organisation has stressed on a number of occasions that unless nations work together in pooling their resources for the common good of mankind the consequences could be catastrophic. They have argued for a complete transparent approach to the sharing of influenza samples and have warned that people and companies trying to enact financial gain from the harbouring of influenza samples and information could end up slowing down research and put in the world in more danger.

Indonesia for example has not been keen to supply bird flu samples to the World Health Organisation after arguing that the samples were being used to help western drug companies make influenza medication which then would be sold back to poorer countries like Indonesia for big profits. The Indonesian government demanded that the World Health Organisation broker an agreement which would enable the Indonesian people to have access to any influenza medication derived from samples they provided very cheaply. At present the Indonesian government and the World Health Organisation have not been able to come to an agreement.

It is hoped that this new database which is completely transparent and open, could help the Indonesian government to change their mind and to submit all their bird flu samples.