The Indonesian Health Ministry has criticized the World Health Organization (WHO) for ignoring repeated requests for the return 58 bird flu viruses, local press said Friday.
Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said Thursday the ministry asked for the return of the samples three months ago, but had yet to receive any response.
"We have been demanding the return of our viruses since August, but the WHO has never replied," she was quoted by local newspaper The Jakarta Post as saying.
Siti said Indonesia did not keep a stockpile of seed viruses because international regulations did not allow it.
"The regulation is actually detrimental to us, because it obliges the source country to give up all its samples."
Indonesia has sent bird flu samples to the WHO since the first case of bird flu in humans was reported in 2005.
If Indonesia were allowed to keep the samples, it could breed the viruses and develop its own vaccines, the minister said.
"We keep asking (the WHO) to return the samples because they belong to us. This is for the sake of our country's sovereignty."
Siti said there had yet to be a fair and transparent mechanism for sample sharing between the WHO and source countries, and that the WHO has the authority to send the samples to any country without requesting permission from the source country.
The virus, she said, could easily be delivered to research institutions worldwide. Other countries could obtain the virus for free and conduct their own research to create vaccines.
The vaccines could then be sold to others, including people in the source countries, she added.
"Indonesia is struggling to have this unfair mechanism changed through international forums," Siti said.
Source: Xinhua
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