Withheld Bird Flu Samples Endanger World, U.S. Says

October 30, 2008
By Simeon Bennett
Bloomberg

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. should continue to oppose countries that expose the world to ``even more danger'' by demanding payment in return for sharing samples of H5N1 bird flu, said the U.S. government's outgoing top health official.

Michael Leavitt, preparing to step down as U.S. secretary of health and human services after next week's presidential elections, urged his successor to ``strongly defend'' a 60-year practice of countries sharing virus samples for free, according to the text of a speech in Washington yesterday.

Indonesia began withholding avian-flu virus samples in December 2006, saying the pathogens are its intellectual property. The country has demanded access to affordable drugs for Asia in exchange for sharing the H5N1 samples. Doctors can't produce up- to-date vaccines without the latest versions.

``Once compensation is paid, there will be no end to demands, and the system will fail, subjecting every one in the world to even more danger,'' according to the speech, which was e-mailed to Bloomberg News. The text didn't name specific countries.

Indonesia's Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said in a text message that the practice of virus-sharing supported by the U.S. and the World Health Organization is an unjust example of ``neoliberal capitalism'' that favors developed nations such as the U.S. and should be changed.

World Peace

``Developing countries realize that the system created by the U.S. at WHO for the past 60 years is merely for pharmaceutical trading for developed countries,'' Supari said. ``Such a system is no longer suited to attain world peace and welfare.''

At least 387 people in 15 countries have been infected with the H5N1 strain of the avian-flu virus since 2003, according to the Geneva-based WHO. Almost two of every three cases were fatal. So far this year, 36 cases have been reported, down from 74 in the first 10 months of 2007. About four-fifths of human cases have occurred in Asia.

Leavitt, 57, has been secretary of health since January 2005. He delivered the speech in a Webcast.

To contact the reporter on this story: Simeon Bennett in Singapore at sbennett9@bloomberg.net

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