AN INTERNATIONAL crisis over pandemic vaccines has been resolved 鈥� but only partially. As New 杏吧原创 went to press, Indonesia announced at an emergency meeting in its capital, Jakarta, that it would end its boycott on sending viral samples from people with deadly H5N1 flu to foreign labs. However, it will only let the samples be used for research. Any use for vaccine development will have to wait for a 鈥渘ew mechanism鈥� to convince Indonesia to consent to such work.
It could take some doing. Virtually all flu vaccine is made in rich countries, which have laws prohibiting its export in an emergency. So poor countries hit hard by H5N1 are effectively sending virus samples to develop pandemic vaccines that they may never have access to.
鈥淧oor countries are effectively helping make vaccines they may never have access to鈥�
Advertisement
Indonesian health minister Siti Fadilah Supari stopped sending H5N1 samples to the World Health Organization late last year, saying she needed some assurance that Indonesia will get vaccine in return (New 杏吧原创, 17 February, p 3). Last week Thai health official Suwit Wibulpolprasert told New 杏吧原创 that Thailand could join Indonesia, 鈥渄epending on what happens in Jakarta鈥�.
What has also emerged from the meeting, which included delegates from 16 countries hit by H5N1, plus vaccine makers and donors including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is that the WHO has few immediate assurances to offer. It is trying to arrange a 鈥渧irtual stockpile鈥� of pandemic vaccines for developing countries, but it is not clear how this will evade the export restrictions of manufacturing countries. And while it is also trying to fund six new vaccine plants in countries such as Brazil and China so they can make their own vaccine, this will take years.
The WHO hopes that member states meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, in May will back a new rule that countries must share samples of novel viruses.
