Leaders convene to discuss bird flu
OTTAWA – World health ministers meeting in Canada to discuss strategies to fight the spread of bird flu emphasized Monday that preventing the disease from mutating into a deadly human virus was as important as developing new vaccines against it.
That said, some officials at the opening of a two-day conference on battling a potential flu pandemic were discussing whether they might have to break international patent regulations to produce generic versions of Tamiflu if it came down to saving their civilians.
“A suggestion that’s being made by some countries is that there are countries that have the capacity to manufacture the vaccine, that we actually need to assist them with technology transfers,” Canada’s Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh told a news conference. He said “technology transfers” was “a euphemism for loosening the patent laws.”
Dosanjh was referring to recent statements by Indian authorities, who are weighing whether there is enough risk of bird flu spreading in their impoverished nation to invoke a compulsory licensing clause to lift Swiss pharmaceutical Roche’s patent of Tamiflu, considered by many as the only viable drug for fighting bird flu.
The World Trade Organization in 2003 decided to allow governments to override patents during national health crises, though no member state has yet invoked the clause.
“It may not be resolved here; but there are countries out there that are saying they will defy patent protections, and we couldn’t be judgmental if people are dying,” Dosanjh said.
World Health Organization Director General Lee Jong-Wook said the conference delegates were considering a proposal by Mexico for the wealthier nations to put aside 10 percent of their stockpiles of Tamiflu and other potential influenza drugs for poorer nations. He said some nations had suggested 5 percent was more in line with reality, but conceded some countries likely would hoard drugs in the face of a true pandemic.
Lee emphasized the need for transparency and immediate reporting of any cases of avian flu. China was widely criticized in the early stages of SARS for not going public with its cases.
Dr. Jacques Diouf, head of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization, said countries must not overlook the goal of tamping down bird flu in Southeast Asia while obsessing over the development of antiviral drugs.
“As the world takes prudent measures to prepare for a major human pandemic, greater measures must be taken to stop this disease, in its tracks, at its source, in animals. This is very possible. It can be done,” Diouf said.
He said 140 million chickens and ducks had been culled in Southeast Asia, costing those countries $10 billion and devastating rural communities.
Diouf suggested it would take $1 billion to make a dent in efforts to wrestle under control the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus, which is endemic in parts of Asia. However, only $25 million has been pledged.
As the conference convened, European health officials were meeting in Copenhagen to review that continent’s readiness for a possible human pandemic.
The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has been confirmed in Russia, Romania and Turkey, and experts in Britain were trying to determine Monday whether six Croatian swans found last week had H5N1 – a strain that scientists fear could mutate into a virus that would easily spread person-to-person.
The latest death was reported today by Indonesia. Ministry of Health official Hariadi Wibisono said a 23-year-old man from West Java province died in late September, and the death was confirmed as stemming from bird flu by a Hong Kong lab Monday.