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Sharing bird flu samples

Member-states of the World Health Organisation have at last consented to address the question of putting in place an equitable arrangement for sharing bird flu samples and benefits of research. Indonesia, the country worst hit by the H5N1 virus, had stopped sending samples to the WHO early this year, protesting the absence of any guarantee of access, in the event of a pandemic outbreak, to vaccines that might be developed using its samples. However, in May, it did send thr ee samples to the WHO’s collaborating laboratory in Japan, but insisted — and continues to insist — that the samples should be used exclusively for research and not shared with pharmaceutical companies. On its part, the WHO, while agreeing to resolve this critical issue, wants Indonesia — which remains a fertile ground for the proliferation of H5N1 virus and where most of the human infections and deaths have occurred since 2003 — and other southeast Asian countries to share their samples with it for studying the evolution of the virus and developing a vaccine.

Ahead of the WHO meeting, Indonesia stated that a decision to send further samples will depend on the moves by the world body to resolve the issue of access to vaccines. What will be its position now, in the light of the latest development, is not clear. It will indeed be unfortunate if Indonesia decides not to share its samples, as the influenza virus, unlike other common viruses, has a capability to mutate at a remarkably fast pace. Frequent outbreaks and human infections provide ideal conditions for the H5N1 virus to mutate to a form easily transmittable between humans. That 15 of the infected people have died since Indonesia stopped sharing its samples has served to heighten the need and urgency for studying all its samples. The onus in this respect rests primarily on the WHO for the simple reason that the main culprit is its skewed benefits-sharing policy that gives a short shrift to the interests of countries that provided the biological samples, typically the developing countries. If anything that impedes research and development of vaccine is unacceptable, it is grossly unjust and inhuman not to let the developing countries share the benefits of a vaccine developed by using the biological samples they had sent.

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