APEC health ministers agree to share new bird flu strains

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June 08, 2007

SYDNEY, Australia (AP): Pacific Rim health ministers promised on Friday to share samples of new bird flu strains in a cooperative effort to safeguard humans from the deadly virus.

The ministers, from the 21 member countries and territories of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, reaffirmed their commitment at their annual conference to prepare for a potential global bird flu pandemic among humans, or a virulent human strain.

The agreement specifically commits countries to sharing samples of the deadly H5N1 virus as it mutates, so that scientists can match the latest strain with vaccines that are in production.

Indonesia - the nation hit hardest by bird flu, with 79 human deaths - stopped sharing its H5N1 samples with international scientists searching for mutations early this year, because Jakarta wanted assurances that any vaccines developed would notbe too expensive for developing nations.

Indonesia ended its boycott in May, however, after receiving assurances from the World Health Organization that the virus samples would not be passed on to private pharmaceutical companies without Jakarta's permission.

Australian Health Minister Tony Abbott, who chaired the APEC health ministers' conference, said Friday that the cost of vaccines had been a vexing question in recent months, and that he was pleased Indonesia was part of the latest agreement.

"It was very encouraging to see the support of all economies for virus-sharing as part of the meeting," Abbott told reporters at the end of the two-day conference.

Abbot said any significant interruptions to virus-sharing would have "tragic" consequences.

"We need to see exactly what is happening to this virus because if we're unable to continually track it, we'll be unable to monitor the possibility of rapid mutation to something that could be effectively transmissible human-to-human,"he said.

Abbot said that he understood Indonesia's concerns, and that it was important nations that handed over their samples got "tangible benefits" in return.

According to the World Health Organization, 310 people have been infected with the H5N1 strain since 2003, and 189 have died. (**)