Indonesia

Indonesian officials say they have refused to share bird flu virus samples with the World Health Organization (WHO) because scientists and laboratories repeatedly violated UN guidelines on sample sharing. In an article published in the latest issue of The Annals, Academy of Medicine, Singapore, Indonesian scientists and officials, including Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari, said the current system of sample sharing was unfair and perpetuated the “inequities of the global system.” They said Indonesian officials learnt at the end of 2006 that an Australian company was developing a vaccine against the H5N1 bird flu virus using a strain of the virus from Indonesia. (Reuters)