U.S. calls for bird flu virus sharing

WASHINGTON, April 15 (UPI) -- U.S. health chief Michael Leavitt called on Indonesia to resume regularly sharing samples of new avian influenza viruses with the World Health Organization.

During a visit to Jakarta this week, Leavitt told reporters he opposed any linkage between the sharing and new arrangements to prevent commercial exploitation of the samples.

"We have the same concerns about a global pandemic. If (flu) is present everywhere then there is danger everywhere, and we must work together," he said, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Last year Indonesia attracted criticism from public health specialists when it stopped sending WHO scientists samples of the H5N1 bird flu virus from new outbreaks. The scientists analyze and gene-sequence the samples, looking for new variations that might herald the much-feared mutation of the virus into a human-to-human transmissible form.

Experts say that such a mutation could easily lead to the first influenza pandemic of the new century and kill millions of people.

"You might say we're (statistically) overdue another flu pandemic," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told United Press International Tuesday.

"The less information we have (about new forms of the virus) the less able we are to protect global public health," he said.

In February, Indonesia resumed sending the samples on what some officials have characterized as a "case by case" basis. "We are still not receiving virus samples on a regular enough basis to ensure proper functions of the … Global Influenza Surveillance Network," said Hartl, referring to the WHO's pandemic early warning system.

He said there had been a series of intergovernmental meetings within the organization about the issue, which concerns a new Material Transfer Agreement governing the availability of the samples to commercial entities. A working paper was being prepared for two meetings in November, he said.

"There are different views on the issue (among member nations), but there is a lot of good will to sort it out," said Hartl.

"We understand the concerns that the Indonesians … and some other countries" have, he said. Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari controversially charged in a recent book that the United States and the WHO were trying to profit from bird flu by seizing control of virus samples isolated in laboratories in less-developed countries.

"The important thing is transparency," Terence Taylor, director of the International Council for the Life Sciences, told UPI. He said it was important that the broadest possible confidence was maintained in international structures like the WHO surveillance network.

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Shaun Waterman, UPI Homeland and National Security Editor