Again "H9N2 avian flu"

World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Margaret Chan and Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari successfully overcame a two-month dispute between the international organization and the Indonesian government over the sharing of bird flu samples.

The minister announced Tuesday that the government would resume sending its samples of the H5N1 virus to WHO-designated international laboratories after receiving a guarantee from the health organization that private companies would not use the virus to produce commercial bird flu vaccines.

The pair arrived at a win-win solution in which both parties agreed to accommodate their counterpart's interests. The sending of bird flu samples to WHO will resume, while Indonesia was given assurance it would gain better access to more affordable vaccines.

Although nations are required to send their virus samples to WHO, this deal is not supported by secondary regulations that necessitate cooperation between supplier countries and vaccine producers on the commercial benefits of the vaccines produced from their samples.

The pair deserve our praise. If the dispute was further drawn out then millions of people across the globe would suffer the consequences. This would especially be the case in Indonesia, where there have been more bird flu cases than in any other country. Samples are badly needed for research into the virus to continue.

Their accord has calmed international fears that the war against the deadly avian influenza would be severely slowed if Indonesia continued its boycott of the United Nations agency.

The settlement also tamed domestic concerns that other international organizations would take retaliatory measures against Indonesia, which still depends heavily on international assistance in combating other deadly diseases such as TBC, malaria and HIV.

It seems there are no international humanitarian organizations or agencies, including Unicef, not currently involved in helping Indonesians, who are still bearing the brunt of the 1997 economic crisis.

The government's decision in January to stop sending its samples to WHO-designated laboratories has triggered debate among developed and developing countries alike. The government was upset after learning that an Australian drugmaker used Indonesian samples to produce its own commercial vaccine. The government then agreed to send the samples solely to an American drugmaker after the latter pledged to provide affordable vaccines to Indonesia.

However, the distance covered by the recent WHO-Indonesia agreement is only a small part in the long journey to reach a point at which we can say bird flu is completely under control.

In Indonesia, both the government and society in general are often ignorant of deadly diseases, partly because the nation itself has been preoccupied by numerous natural disasters and diseases -- tsunamis, floods, earthquakes, dengue fever, famine and high unemployment rates.

In February, the government, media and society turned away from the war against bird flu after Jakarta and many other places in Indonesia suffered from severe floods. Following this, people were busy fighting dengue fever. After this disease abated, bird flu surfaced again and the media began reporting the deaths of more people from avian influenza.

Jakarta itself has been relatively successful in eradicating bird flu, due largely to the pouring of funds into mass bird culling and fogging operations by the local government. Jakarta is also quite small when compared to other provinces, such as West Java and Central Java.

In many regions many people still live, literally, in close quarters with chickens. Many refused to kill their poultry because they fear losing their main source of income. They also said compensation promised by the government was not enough.

It is only a matter of time before Indonesia will have to bury more victims because of its failure to pay serious attention to eradicating bird flu. The assurance given by WHO -- that it would provide more affordable vaccines to Indonesia -- will not amount to much when there is still no effective way of curing such deadly diseases and while society remains indifferent to such threats.

source:www.thejakartapost.com