“Several organizations, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, are considering funding a stockpile of bird-flu vaccine as one possible way to ensure access for people in developing countries most at risk of dying from the disease.

The idea of creating a global vaccine stockpile has come to the fore[front] at a meeting that the World Health Organization (WHO) has called [in Jakarta]. The meeting aims to bridge an impasse that emerged earlier this year after Indonesia's government decided to withhold sharing its samples of the avian-flu virus. … Funding bird-flu vaccines doesn't fall under the [Bill &Melinda Gates] Foundation's primary goals, which include fighting scourges that already kill millions, including AIDS and malaria. But funding avian-influenza vaccines could be a possibility because ‘it meets the criterion of being a vaccine solution which affects countries where the burden of disease is greatest,’ Kanwarjit Singh, a senior program officer with the Seattle-based foundation says. He adds, however, that there are no specific proposals on the table yet.

WHO is also approaching the Geneva-based GAVI Alliance, a nonprofit group that operates with funding from various governments and the Gates Foundation and that has already allocated nearly $2 billion toward the purchase of various vaccines. GAVI's board members will formally consider a proposal from WHO in May that lays out various options but doesn't yet specify how much money would be needed. …” [The Wall Street Journal/Factiva]

AP writes that also at the meeting on Tuesday, “Indonesia's health minister blasted the WHO for refusing to guarantee that the country's bird flu virus would not be used to develop commercial vaccines that are too expensive for poor countries to buy. The WHO said that by withholding samples of the H5N1 virus, she was putting Indonesians - and possibly the world - at risk. …

‘These practices keep developing countries poor and sick,’ Supari told el-Shinta radio station in an interview. ‘The system is more dangerous than bird flu itself.’ Indonesia's decision has received support from some other developing nations, many of which sent health chiefs to Jakarta for the three-day gathering that wraps up Wednesday. But a solution to the standoff appeared in doubt Tuesday. David Heymann, WHO's top flu official, said Supari's demands would hinder research into the virus and jeopardize public safety. …” [The Associated Press/Factiva]

Reuters reports that on the sidelines of the meeting, leading virologist Robert Webster “… urged Indonesia to resume sharing its H5N1 bird flu virus samples as scientists need to know if the strain has mutated or even built resistance to anti-viral drugs such as Tamiflu. … ‘We don't have access to the viruses to know whether these viruses are unique, whether they are developing resistance to the anti-viral drugs and whether there is more ability of these viruses to transmit,’ Robert Webster told journalists on the sidelines of [the meeting]. While Indonesian viruses were no more lethal compared to other virus strains, Webster said more studies were needed. …” [Reuters/Factiva]

Meanwhile, AFP notes that “Two people in Indonesia died after testing positive for bird flu, with further tests being conducted to confirm the initial results, the country's health ministry said Tuesday. … The deaths would take the toll in the country worst-hit by the disease to 68 if the virus is confirmed as the cause of death. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

In related news, AFP further reports that “ASEAN, Cambodia and the WHO will conduct a two-day exercise next week to test Asia's ability to stem a bird flu pandemic, the UN health agency said [in Manila] Tuesday. The exercise involves a mock scenario in which a strain of bird flu with the potential for a human pandemic is discovered in Cambodia. Tamiflu and protective equipment such as goggles and masks have to be swiftly dispatched from a stockpile managed by a private contractor in Singapore to Cambodia. The exercise will be run from the WHO Western Pacific office in Manila and would be the first-ever test of the region's capability to ‘respond rapidly to signs of a pandemic and to snuff it out,’ the WHO said in a statement. The drill will be a test of rapid containment, involving risk assessment, communications, and decision-making. No supplies will actually be moved, it added. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva] // World Bank


Publication date: 27 March 2007   

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