More on OA to avian flu data

Helen Branswell, Experts urge WHO to get countries on side for routine H5N1 virus sharing, CBC News, September 26, 2006. Excerpt:

A panel of international influenza experts is urging the World Health Organization to get countries to buy into a system whereby avian influenza virus samples and viral genetic blueprints would be freely and rapidly shared, without commercial gain for any party in the system.

The experts - members of a newly constituted WHO pandemic influenza task force - suggested open sharing of viruses that pose a pandemic potential should become standard practice to allow the global community to keep an eye on looming problems, WHO officials said Tuesday.

"There was widespread agreement that one, this is an absolutely critical public health activity for protecting us all against influenza, for providing global alert, and also for providing the vaccines which are going to be needed both for seasonal vaccines as well as potential pandemic threats," Dr. Keiji Fukuda, co-ordinator of the WHO's Global Influenza Program, said in a teleconference from Geneva....

Several years ago the agency set up a secure database to allow scientists in its international laboratory network to compare H5N1 avian flu viruses across countries. The aim was to get affected countries to share on an accelerated basis. Typically this type of information isn't shared before scientific papers on the viruses in question have been published; that can take months or years.

But as concern about the threat of the H5N1 flu virus has increased, the closed database has taken on the image of an "old boys' club" for flu. Pressure has been mounting on the WHO to open up the database to the wider scientific community. It reached a peak last month when 70 senior scientists, including Nobel Laureates, signed a letter supporting the creation of an open-access flu database that would be outside the WHO's control....

Fukuda said the task force urged WHO to get countries to reaffirm that the sharing of viral information should be done on a non-profit basis - the system currently used to find the flu strains needed for seasonal flu vaccine.

Dr. David Heymann, acting special adviser for pandemic influenza, said the WHO will draft a policy on the issue, which will be vetted by member countries - especially those afflicted by H5N1 outbreaks. If they support it, the WHO's new director general - who will be elected in November - will decide whether the policy should be put as a resolution to the World Health Assembly, the WHO's governing council....