WHO's Chan pledges fair access to bird flu vaccines

GENEVA, May 17 (Reuters) World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Margaret Chan pledged to ensure that poorer nations get access to vaccines against the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus at an affordable price.

Addressing concerns raised by developing countries such as Indonesia, Chan said she was committed to finding ways of distributing potentially life-saving vaccines in the event of a human influenza pandemic.

''WHO recognises the concern of many developing countries and I am fully behind you. That's why we are taking a series of actions to make sure that developing countries have equitable access to affordable pandemic vaccines,'' she said yesterday.

Chan also stressed that any move to withhold virus samples by countries with human cases threatened the United Nations' agency's effort to prevent and confront a pandemic.

Indonesia, the country worst hit by the virus, said on Tuesday it had resumed sending H5N1 samples to WHO laboratories after a five-month hiatus imposed because Jakarta said that the samples were being used for profit by drugs companies.

Sharing samples with the WHO's network of collaborative laboratories is deemed vital to see if viruses have mutated, become drug resistant or grown more transmissible.

''If you do not share the virus with us, I want to be absolutely honest with you, I will fail you,'' Chan told a technical briefing of country representatives during the WHO's annual assembly of 193 member states.

''I will fail you because you are tying my hands, you are muffling my ears, you are blinding my eyes,'' she said.

Chan's comments came after 17 countries led by Indonesia issued a call at the assembly for a fair share of vaccines that drugmakers develop based on the samples they give the WHO.

The H5N1 bird flu virus has 185 people, mainly in south-east Asia, since it re-emerged in 2003, according to the latest WHO figures issued yesterday. Indonesia has suffered 76 deaths.

It is mainly an animal disease, but scientists fear it could kill millions if it mutates into being easily spread between humans.

Chan said it was critical that public health experts be able to analyse all H5N1 strains so they can identify changes.

''The sharing of virus samples is critical for pandemic influenza. It is unlike measles, it is unlike dengue, it is unlike polio, because the world's scientists know the characteristics of these viruses,'' she said.

''Influenza virus is very tricky. It changes every day. The virus as we are talking now is mutating at a pace that we cannot keep up with,'' she said.

The WHO stresses that it would take at least four to six months to produce the first does of a pandemic influenza vaccine should a pandemic begin.

REUTERS DS HS0905