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Officials invited to WHO bird flu meeting in Geneva

Three of Taiwan's health officials will participate in a bird flu meeting sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva this month, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Kau (高英茂) said yesterday.

Kau made the announcement yesterday in his report to the legislature's Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee regarding the progress on the country's bid to enter the WHO.

He said the director general of the Department of Health's (DOH) Center for Disease Control Kuo Hsu-sung (郭旭松) and two other medical experts had been invited to participate in the WHO-sponsored Partners Meeting on Avian Influenza and Human Pandemic Influenza, which is slated to be held in Geneva from Monday to Wednesday.

Kuo is apparently awaiting confirmation of his attendance at the WHO meeting, as he said later in the legislature's Sanitation, Environment and Social Welfare Committee meeting that he had registered to attend the meeting, but had yet to be notified whether he could attend, according to a Central News Agency report yesterday.

In addition to Kuo, the DOH plans to send Dr Chang Shan-chun (張上淳), a virus expert from National Taiwan University Hospital, and Ho Mei-hsiang (何美鄉), an associate researcher in biological medicine from the Academia Sinica, the country's top research institute. Both have extensive experience from fighting the SARS outbreak two years ago.

The trio is also planning to visit the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche to hold discussions on matters regarding Taiwan's request for licensing to produce Tamiflu, an anti-viral drug that has been effective in the treatment of bird flu.

While Taiwan has been invited to the WHO's bird flu meeting this month, Kau told lawmakers that the nation was unable to attend a bird flu prevention meeting co-sponsored by the US government and the WHO in Canada last month because of China's opposition.

Kau said the US government had informed the government that China's presence at the meeting was required and that in order to make up for Taiwan's absence, the US would provide details of the meeting to Taiwan later.

In response to China's pressure, Kau said his ministry had lodged protests to the US government and asked it to be "more confident" in defying China, since the US supports Taiwan's bid to gain observer status at the WHO.

Regarding whether the nation will be able to obtain a license from Roche to produce Tamiflu, Kau said he believed that through international negotiation and pressure from other governments and even the UN on the Swiss pharmaceutical company, a reasonable solution would be found.

He said that if the Swiss drug company continues to refuse to grant the license, Taiwan can produce Tamiflu without breaching international laws under WTO regulations.

Regarding the progress on the country's bid to join the WHO, Kau said that he was "cautiously optimistic" that Taiwan would be able to obtain WHO observer status before formally joining as a member.

Kau said if Taiwan fails in its WHO bid this year, officials in charge of the WHO campaign will take the full responsibility.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said in his second-term inauguration speech on May 20 last year that Taiwan would gain entry into the WHO within two years.

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