THE world鈥檚 ability to track the evolution of flu and develop vaccines against it hangs in the balance. Governments will meet next week at the World 午夜福利1000集合 Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, to try and rebuild the global system for sharing flu viruses after protests by Indonesia earlier this year. The country has sent only five H5N1 samples from infected people to WHO labs in 2007. Virologists say this is not enough to track H5N1 evolution.
Indonesia and its allies complain that the samples they send to the WHO-run Global Influenza Surveillance Network (GISN) are being turned into patented diagnostic tests and vaccines that they can鈥檛 afford. 鈥淭here has been a huge spike in H5N1-related patents recently,鈥� says Ed Hammond of pressure group the Sunshine Project.
In August, Indonesia argued that countries that supply virus should be guaranteed access to vaccines. It is unclear whether the Geneva meeting will make enough progress towards setting up such a system to get Indonesia sending samples again. But 鈥渨e need to know what is happening to the Indonesian virus,鈥� says Dave Heymann, head of flu at the WHO.
Advertisement
Bird Flu 鈥� Learn more about the flu pandemic that could kill millions in our continually updated special report.
