The World Health Organization might guarantee that poor nations get access to stockpiles of bird flu vaccines in the event of a pandemic, the top WHO flu official said yesterday, hoping to end a row triggered by Indonesia's decision to stop sharing virus samples.
Indonesia -- the nation hardest hit by bird flu, with 66 human deaths -- is refusing to send samples of the H5N1 bird flu virus to WHO until it stops sharing them with commercial vaccine makers.
The cash-strapped country says the current system is unfair because it cannot afford to buy vaccines produced using its strains.
"The system places developing countries at potential disadvantages in terms of price, access and supply of vaccine," Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said at a meeting of global health officials in Jakarta aimed at finding a solution to the standoff. "The rules of the system must be changed."
The country has said in the past that it wants a legally binding agreement that the samples will not be used for commercial purposes, but Supari made no mention of that demand in her opening speech.
Indonesia's decision has received support from some other developing nations, but has alarmed international scientists desperate to check whether the virus is mutating into a more dangerous form.
David Heymann, WHO's top flu official, said one short-term solution might be "stockpiles of pandemic vaccine in which industry would set aside a percentage of pandemic vaccine for developing country needs, with a guarantee of purchase from WHO."
Later, WHO might help Indonesia and other poor countries develop vaccine production facilities themselves, he said.
He said Indonesia's demand that the world body not make virus strains available to commercial vaccine makers was not a solution and would hinder global cooperation in the fight against the virus.
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