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Flu Drugs Urged for Poor -- Health Ministers Hedge on Mexican Appeal, Say UN Should Be Repository in Pandemic

Posted on: Thursday, 27 October 2005, 12:01 CDT

By Beth DuffBrown Associated Press

OTTAWA - Mexico's health minister urged wealthy nations to help provide flu drugs to the developing world, saying Tuesday that the divide between the rich and the poor would be catastrophic in the event of a global bird flu pandemic.

"I think the ethical, the political, the future security implications of the situation where only the wealthy countries have access to vaccines and drugs would be unimaginable," Julio Frenk told The Associated Press on the sidelines of a conference to prepare for a global flu pandemic. "It would be as harmful, or even more harmful, than the pandemic itself."

Frenk, attending the two-day conference with 30 health ministers and the heads of the World Health Organization and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, put forward a proposal to devote a percentage of antivirals and future vaccines for developing nations. While earlier reports had said he would suggest 10 percent, Frenk said he did not present a specific figure.

Ministers hedged any commitment, however, to set aside antivirals or future vaccines and said the World Health Organization should be the repository of any pandemic drugs. They added that the industrialized nations were working on a plan to assist WHO in the case of a pandemic and deploy to developing nations to help them contain any outbreaks.

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt said it was crucial that the public not panic, but educate itself about a potential pandemic.

"What we do know is that there will likely be another pandemic; whether the H5N1 virus will be the spark that establishes that is unknown to us," he said. "Our objective is to prepare for the short and long term."

Bird flu has swept through poultry populations across Asia since 2003, resulting in the deaths or destruction of 140 million chickens and ducks.

Sixty-two people have died in Southeast Asia from avian flu, mostly in Vietnam and Thailand. The 62nd death - that of a 23-year- old man in Indonesia - was confirmed by a Hong Kong lab and announced Tuesday by Indonesia's Health Ministry.

Though human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds, experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted from person to person, possibly causing a pandemic that could kill millions.

Dr. Lee Jong-wook, director general of the World Health Organization, said early detection, containment and compensation for impoverished poultry farmers who reveal their cases of bird flu were crucial components to preventing a pandemic.

As the countries talked about sharing resources and stockpiling the coveted anti-flu drug Tamiflu, the Canadian arm of Swiss drug giant Roche announced Tuesday that it was suspending private sales of the drug in Canada until the flu season begins in December because soaring sales threaten to drain the seasonal flu allocation.

Dosanjh said a showdown over Tamiflu may be in the works and that some countries, such as India, might be forced to ignore patent regulations and develop generic versions.

In other flu developments:

China reported its second outbreak in a week among fowl. An outbreak sickened 2,100 geese and killed about 500 in eastern Anhui province.

Vietnamese media said the country is considering a prohibition of live poultry in all urban areas, and Australia said it will give Vietnam $2.25 million to tackle bird flu.

The Dominican Republic said it has banned live bird imports from flu-hit countries.

Source: Commercial Appeal, The

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