Seventy four people have died from the bird flu virus in Indonesia...

According to the World Health Organisation special funds have been allocated for a number of developing nations that are struggling to beat the H5N1 bird flu virus. The money which will be distributed by the United Nation’s Health Agency was collected from contributions by America and Japan. These two countries have much to lose from an all out pandemic of bird flu and are therefore keen to help tackle the problem at its source.

The six countries that are going to receive the money are Brazil, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Mexico and Vietnam and they should be receiving around two and a half million dollars each which will be put into vaccine research. These countries that are in the thick of the action and are receiving reports of bird flu outbreaks almost daily in their countries and thus they are in the right place to do research on the deadly virus and come up with an effective vaccine.

It is especially important that countries like America and Japan which have vast financial resources help countries such as Indonesia which do not, to get into a position to ensure that when a pandemic does strike they are fully stocked up on all the best medications and other equipment useful in a pandemic.

Recently the government of Indonesia refused to hand over bird flu samples to the World Health Organisation because they felt that western drug companies were possibly making bird flu vaccines that they would then have to buy back at exorbitant prices.  The World Health Organisation is acting as a mediator between the rich and poor countries to ensure that access to all information and scientific research regarding the bird flu viruses is made available to all people and that vaccines that are eventually discovered are distributed fairly so that the maximum amount of lives can be saved.

Seventy four people have died from the bird flu virus in Indonesia so far and 42 people have died in Vietnam according to official World Health Organisation statistics. It is possible that other people have died from the bird flu virus but their deaths went unrecorded. The official statistics show that over 180 people have died from the bird flu virus worldwide since the year 2003 when it was first recognised.