In the News: No Agreement Reached on Bird Flu Virus Sharing - WHO

The recently concluded Intergovernmental Meeting on Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (IGM-PIP), which tackled the sharing of influenza viruses and access to vaccines, came to a deadlock-end.

Health officials failed to reach agreement on a new system to ensure developing countries benefit more from sharing bird flu virus samples used to develop vaccines, the World Health Organization said.

Sharing virus samples among countries is important in virus strain surveillance, as well as in vaccine development. These issues were discussed during the 3-day meeting held from November 20-23, 2007 at the WHO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

“We must have equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of viruses through a fair, transparent and equitable mechanism. It is the moral thing to do,” Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari of Indonesia said. Indonesia has the highest death toll - 91 people - from bird flu.

Indonesia proposed that commercial use of a virus sample would require consent from the country providing it, and that the country should be given affordable access to vaccine stockpiles.

However, John Lange, U.S. special representative for avian and pandemic influenza, said that research and development of vaccines was “very risky, time-consuming and extremely expensive” and it was critical to protect patents to ensure their continued development.

News from Reuters
Image Source