Sally Furniss
Well-known member
Flu Pandemic Threat Remains as H5N1 Deaths Ease, Indonesia Says
By Leony Aurora and Naila Firdausi
Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia, the nation with the most bird flu deaths, said the threat of a deadly flu pandemic hasn't passed even though no new human cases of the H5N1 virus have been detected in the archipelago since July.
The government has allocated 700 billion rupiah ($64 million) in next year's budget to prepare for a pandemic, including building facilities to produce vaccines, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said. The nation may also resume sharing H5N1 samples with the world next year if it can complete an agreement at a World Health Organization meeting next month.
Producing its own vaccine may strengthen Indonesia's position in demanding access to affordable drugs for Asia in exchange for sharing H5N1 samples. The Southeast Asian nation, which accounts for 46 percent of bird flu deaths globally in the past six years, has withheld samples since December 2006, saying the viruses are its own intellectual property. Doctors can't produce up-to-date vaccine without the latest virus strains.
``We have made seasonal flu vaccine,'' Supari said in an Oct. 31 interview in Jakarta. ``The leap to avian flu vaccine won't be too hard.'' Indonesia has already developed a so-called ``seed vaccine,'' a genetically modified form of a pathogen that can be grown safely to mass-produce vaccines.
The H5N1 flu strain is known to have infected at least 387 people in 15 countries since 2003, according to the Geneva-based WHO. Almost two of every three cases were fatal. Health officials worldwide are concerned the virus may mutate into a form easily passed between humans, touching off the first flu pandemic in almost four decades.
Negotiations Advance
Negotiations to resume virus-sample sharing ``have come a long way,'' Supari said. ``The only obstacle left is the choice of tracking system,'' she said. Indonesia expects to reach an agreement at a WHO meeting in Geneva in December and may resume virus-sharing next year, she said.
``We've heard some of these things before, so I guess we've just got to be patient and wait for them to be played out,'' said Ian Barr, deputy director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference & Research on Influenza in Melbourne, Australia. ``We would be very happy if Indonesia resumed sharing the viruses,'' Barr said in a telephone interview today.
The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has killed 112 people and sickened 25 others in Indonesia, according to the WHO. Most infections were caused by contact with infected poultry, such as children playing with them or adults butchering them or plucking feathers, according to the WHO.
No New Cases
No new human cases have been found since the last ones were detected in July, Supari said, citing better public understanding about how to keep poultry safely.
``I can't say the threat has passed, but at the moment, there's nothing that can trigger a pandemic except if it's man- made,'' Supari said.
Laboratory tests and sequence analysis conducted by the Indonesian health ministry's research center and the government- funded Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology on all samples after the country stopped sending the virus to the WHO found no mutation toward a human-to-human transmission, she said.
Indonesia in April released a national plan for coping with an influenza pandemic. The plan assumes a pandemic flu virus will strike 30 percent of the world's fourth-most populous nation, or 66 million people, and kill more than 153,000.
To contact the reporters on this story: Leony Aurora in Jakarta at laurora@bloomberg.net; Naila Firdausi in Jakarta at nfirdausi@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: November 2, 2008 23:34 EST
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aPyq6s3u_XHA&refer=asia
By Leony Aurora and Naila Firdausi
Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia, the nation with the most bird flu deaths, said the threat of a deadly flu pandemic hasn't passed even though no new human cases of the H5N1 virus have been detected in the archipelago since July.
The government has allocated 700 billion rupiah ($64 million) in next year's budget to prepare for a pandemic, including building facilities to produce vaccines, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said. The nation may also resume sharing H5N1 samples with the world next year if it can complete an agreement at a World Health Organization meeting next month.
Producing its own vaccine may strengthen Indonesia's position in demanding access to affordable drugs for Asia in exchange for sharing H5N1 samples. The Southeast Asian nation, which accounts for 46 percent of bird flu deaths globally in the past six years, has withheld samples since December 2006, saying the viruses are its own intellectual property. Doctors can't produce up-to-date vaccine without the latest virus strains.
``We have made seasonal flu vaccine,'' Supari said in an Oct. 31 interview in Jakarta. ``The leap to avian flu vaccine won't be too hard.'' Indonesia has already developed a so-called ``seed vaccine,'' a genetically modified form of a pathogen that can be grown safely to mass-produce vaccines.
The H5N1 flu strain is known to have infected at least 387 people in 15 countries since 2003, according to the Geneva-based WHO. Almost two of every three cases were fatal. Health officials worldwide are concerned the virus may mutate into a form easily passed between humans, touching off the first flu pandemic in almost four decades.
Negotiations Advance
Negotiations to resume virus-sample sharing ``have come a long way,'' Supari said. ``The only obstacle left is the choice of tracking system,'' she said. Indonesia expects to reach an agreement at a WHO meeting in Geneva in December and may resume virus-sharing next year, she said.
``We've heard some of these things before, so I guess we've just got to be patient and wait for them to be played out,'' said Ian Barr, deputy director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference & Research on Influenza in Melbourne, Australia. ``We would be very happy if Indonesia resumed sharing the viruses,'' Barr said in a telephone interview today.
The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has killed 112 people and sickened 25 others in Indonesia, according to the WHO. Most infections were caused by contact with infected poultry, such as children playing with them or adults butchering them or plucking feathers, according to the WHO.
No New Cases
No new human cases have been found since the last ones were detected in July, Supari said, citing better public understanding about how to keep poultry safely.
``I can't say the threat has passed, but at the moment, there's nothing that can trigger a pandemic except if it's man- made,'' Supari said.
Laboratory tests and sequence analysis conducted by the Indonesian health ministry's research center and the government- funded Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology on all samples after the country stopped sending the virus to the WHO found no mutation toward a human-to-human transmission, she said.
Indonesia in April released a national plan for coping with an influenza pandemic. The plan assumes a pandemic flu virus will strike 30 percent of the world's fourth-most populous nation, or 66 million people, and kill more than 153,000.
To contact the reporters on this story: Leony Aurora in Jakarta at laurora@bloomberg.net; Naila Firdausi in Jakarta at nfirdausi@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: November 2, 2008 23:34 EST
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aPyq6s3u_XHA&refer=asia