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Last Updated: Friday, June 1, 2007 21:26:17 Vietnam (GMT+07)
China shares bird flu sample, first time in year: WHO
China has shared human bird flu samples for the first time in more than a year, giving a boost to international efforts to track the deadly H5N1 virus and develop vaccines, the World Health Organization said Friday.
The recent samples, taken from two people, were received on Thursday night at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, one of the WHO's collaborating laboratories, it said.
"They arrived last night at CDC," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters in Geneva. "We welcome it, it shows China is working with the international system of virus sharing."
Scientists say that sharing samples of viruses, which are constantly changing, is vital to see if they have developed resistance to drugs or become more easily transmissible. Genetic analysis of the virus is also essential for developing commercial vaccines and diagnostic tests, according to the WHO.
The H5N1 virus remains mainly a virus of birds, but experts fear it could change into a form easily spread from person to person and sweep around the world, sparking a pandemic which could kill millions within months.
China has previously complained that samples it sent to WHO-affiliated laboratories in 2004 were used in research that failed to acknowledge the contribution of Chinese scientists, in a breach of protocol for which the U.N. agency has apologized.
China announced in April that it had agreed to resume sharing human bird flu samples after a year-long interruption, but it has taken since then for the samples to travel, clear U.S. customs in Los Angeles and reach Atlanta.
Chinese authorities said at the time that they would send two recent samples and a third from a Beijing patient who was infected in 2003. WHO's Hartl said on Friday that the two recent samples had been received but the older one had not been sent.
Indonesia resumes sharing
Indonesia, which has the highest human toll from the disease, resumed sharing virus samples this month after a five-month gap. It stopped sharing virus with the WHO last December, saying it feared that it would not benefit from any vaccines derived from the samples.
It resumed sharing at a time when the WHO's annual World Health Assembly was near an agreement, reached on May 23, which met demands by developing countries led by Indonesia that it revamp its 50-year-old system for sharing virus samples.
The WHO agreed to set up a working group to draw up new rules under which WHO laboratories analyze samples and share them with third parties such as researchers and drug companies.
Under the deal, it also pledged to work to ensure "fair and equitable distribution" of pandemic influenza vaccines at affordable prices and set up a global vaccine stockpile.
In the meantime, countries are expected to continue "timely sharing" of virus samples with the WHO's labs to track the virus and assess the risk of an influenza pandemic.
Worldwide, the virus has killed 187 people among 309 known cases since 2003, according to the Geneva-based WHO.
China shares bird flu sample, first time in year: WHO
China has shared human bird flu samples for the first time in more than a year, giving a boost to international efforts to track the deadly H5N1 virus and develop vaccines, the World Health Organization said Friday.
The recent samples, taken from two people, were received on Thursday night at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, one of the WHO's collaborating laboratories, it said.
"They arrived last night at CDC," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters in Geneva. "We welcome it, it shows China is working with the international system of virus sharing."
Scientists say that sharing samples of viruses, which are constantly changing, is vital to see if they have developed resistance to drugs or become more easily transmissible. Genetic analysis of the virus is also essential for developing commercial vaccines and diagnostic tests, according to the WHO.
The H5N1 virus remains mainly a virus of birds, but experts fear it could change into a form easily spread from person to person and sweep around the world, sparking a pandemic which could kill millions within months.
China has previously complained that samples it sent to WHO-affiliated laboratories in 2004 were used in research that failed to acknowledge the contribution of Chinese scientists, in a breach of protocol for which the U.N. agency has apologized.
China announced in April that it had agreed to resume sharing human bird flu samples after a year-long interruption, but it has taken since then for the samples to travel, clear U.S. customs in Los Angeles and reach Atlanta.
Chinese authorities said at the time that they would send two recent samples and a third from a Beijing patient who was infected in 2003. WHO's Hartl said on Friday that the two recent samples had been received but the older one had not been sent.
Indonesia resumes sharing
Indonesia, which has the highest human toll from the disease, resumed sharing virus samples this month after a five-month gap. It stopped sharing virus with the WHO last December, saying it feared that it would not benefit from any vaccines derived from the samples.
It resumed sharing at a time when the WHO's annual World Health Assembly was near an agreement, reached on May 23, which met demands by developing countries led by Indonesia that it revamp its 50-year-old system for sharing virus samples.
The WHO agreed to set up a working group to draw up new rules under which WHO laboratories analyze samples and share them with third parties such as researchers and drug companies.
Under the deal, it also pledged to work to ensure "fair and equitable distribution" of pandemic influenza vaccines at affordable prices and set up a global vaccine stockpile.
In the meantime, countries are expected to continue "timely sharing" of virus samples with the WHO's labs to track the virus and assess the risk of an influenza pandemic.
Worldwide, the virus has killed 187 people among 309 known cases since 2003, according to the Geneva-based WHO.
