The Indonesian government is at present withholding the latest bird flu samples

The controversy over Indonesia refusing to hand over bird flu samples to the United Nations laboratories is continuing. The issue stems from the fact that Indonesia feels that it is not fair that they hand over the flu samples which are then given to multinational companies to make bird flu drugs which Indonesians then have to buy back for a high price.

The Ministry of Health in Indonesia said that they were attempting to reach an agreement with the United Nations so a fair system of flu samples sharing could be worked out to the mutual advantage of all parties. They stressed that it was not fair that Indonesia had to pay big prices for Tamiflu and were not given priority even though the majority of human bird flu cases had come from Indonesia.

The Indonesian government is at present withholding the latest bird flu samples from the United Nations until it gets all the guarantees that it feels are fair. The World Health Organisation said that the action by the Indonesian government is potentially extremely dangerous.  It is very important that all bird flu samples are monitored to see whether the virus is mutating.  If the virus starts to change in structure and become more contagious it is essential that the United Nations informs the rest of the world about this so that action can be taken to control a worldwide influenza pandemic.

Indonesia has had the most amount of people killed from the bird flu virus with 81 people dead and thus it is understandable that they want to protect themselves. At the same time nevertheless they could be putting the rest of the world in jeopardy by not handing over the flu samples. At Ukmedix News we hope that the Indonesian government and the United Nations reach a amicable agreement in the very near future.