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WHO may set aside some vaccine

The plan comes as Indonesia cuts access to bird flu samples, fearing it can't get medicine.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published March 27, 2007

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The World Health Organization might guarantee that poor nations get access to bird flu vaccines in the event of a pandemic, the top WHO flu official said Monday, hoping to end a dispute triggered by Indonesia's decision to stop sharing virus samples.

Indonesia - the nation hardest hit by bird flu, with 66 human deaths - is refusing to send samples of the H5N1 bird flu virus to WHO until it stops sharing them with commercial vaccinemakers.

Bird flu has killed at least 169 people since it began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in 2003, according to WHO. It remains hard for people to catch. But experts fear it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a pandemic that could kill millions.

The Indonesian government says the current system is unfair because it cannot afford vaccines produced using its strains.

"The system places developing countries at potential disadvantages in terms of price, access and supply of vaccine," Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said at a meeting of officials in Jakarta aimed at ending the standoff.

Indonesia's decision has received support from some other developing nations, but has alarmed scientists desperate to check if the virus is mutating.

"All nations have a responsibility to share data and virus samples," U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt said in a statement that offered $10-million to ensure poor countries have access to vaccines.

Dr. David Heymann, WHO's top flu official, said one short-term solution might be "stockpiles ... in which industry would set aside a percentage of pandemic vaccine for developing country needs, with a guarantee of purchase from WHO."

[Last modified March 27, 2007, 01:26:44]