Indonesia announced three more human deaths from bird flu yesterday, a day after it agreed to resume sending virus samples to international researchers on condition they wouldn't be made freely available to commercial vaccine makers.
Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by the H5N1 bird flu virus, had stopped sharing samples with the World Health Organization (WHO) because it feared its strain would be used to develop vaccines unaffordable for poor nations in the event of a pandemic.
"Now we have the right to directly face the companies to negotiate to get what we want," Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said, adding Indonesia would resume sending viruses immediately. "We trust WHO will not violate our trust, because this is related to the WHO's credibility."
The WHO and other experts say sharing samples is vital to finding ways to fight the virus, while Indonesia and some other developing countries like Thailand want to make sure they have access to human vaccines at reasonable prices.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said yesterday the world should work to create a level playing field to combat bird flu and other health threats.
"I would like to stress that winning the global health battle depends on empowering all countries to equitably develop their own preparedness and protection capacity for all infectious and life-threatening diseases," he told representatives of nearly 30 countries meeting in Jakarta to discuss the bird flu problem.
The virus is endemic among fowl in many parts of Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country. Human cases generally involve contact with infected birds.
A health ministry official said yesterday second tests had confirmed a teenager, a 22-year-old woman and a 39-year-old man had died from bird flu in Indonesia.
The 39-year-old man among the three was from East Java and "was a bird lover ... on March 11 his and neighbors' chickens died suddenly. The tests showed that they were infected by avian flu," Muhammad Nadirin at the health ministry's bird flu center said by telephone.
Bird flu has swept through poultry across Asia to Africa and Europe. Experts say it could mutate into a form easily passing from one person to another, possibly killing millions in months.
Indonesia has had difficulty controlling the disease because millions of Indonesians keep small numbers of chickens for food and to supplement incomes.
Its agreement on Tuesday to resume sending virus samples to the WHO ended a standoff that began in December.
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