Indonesia And WHO Bird Flu Battle

The WHO have already given assurances that this will not happen...

The Health Minister of Indonesia is making a very firm and clear stand against the World Health Organisation by refusing to hand over bird flu samples to them unless certain conditions are met. Siti Fadilah Supari said that unless she has a document that is legally binding which clearly shows that the samples they hand over will not be given to drug companies, so that they can be used to make an expensive anti viral or vaccine that poor countries like Indonesia will not be able to afford, she will not hand over the samples.

The World Health Organisation have already given assurances that this will not happen with a letter of guarantee from Margaret Chan who is the director general but this was not enough for the Indonesian government, despite the fact that they assured the Indonesian Government that the virus strains would only be used for ‘public health risk assessment only.’

The World Health Organisation has been instrumental in ensuring that countries share all knowledge and samples of the bird flu virus but when commercial considerations come into play this is often difficult. Indonesia has requested this legal document after they found out that accompany called CSL Ltd had been given a sample of an Indonesian H5N1 bird flu virus strain in order to do some research for a vaccine. The Indonesian government feel that they should have been consulted before it was handed over to CSL Ltd.

The WHO have admitted that the fact that they gave the sample to a commercial entity could pose ethical dilemmas in the future especially when a country like Indonesia that has suffered the most from bird flu with many human deaths is asked to pay vast sums of money for the vaccine.

The WHO and the Indonesian Government continue to battle out their differences and it is hoped that an amicable settlement can be reached for the benefit of everyone. Some of the poorer countries feel that Tamiflu is costing them millions and millions of pounds that could be spent more effectively elsewhere and that and drugs and vaccines that are discovered should be made available for as cheaply as possible.