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China, WHO sign virus co-op deal
By Zhang Feng and Zhao Huanxin (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-12-21 06:13
A draft agreement on China's commitment to share virus samples isolated from
human H5N1 cases with the World Health Organization (WHO) was signed yesterday
in Beijing.
The agreement was signed by the WHO and the Chinese Ministry of Health when
Shigeru Omi, the WHO's regional director for the Western Pacific, visited the
ministry and the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday.
This agreement follows a pledge made by Chinese Health Minister Gao Qiang in
Ottawa at a bird flu summit a few months ago.
"Details and logistics still have to be finalized, but the commitment is
there, and it is hoped that this sharing will serve as a template for a regular
virus sharing mechanism for the future," Roy Wadia, spokesman of the WHO Beijing
Office, told China Daily.
Up to now, China has witnessed six human cases of bird flu including two
deaths in five provinces and regions Hunan, Anhui, Guangxi, Liaoning and
Jiangxi.
Shigeru Omi leaves today for Central China's Hunan Province, which in
November recorded China's first human H5N1 case.
China's transparency lauded
A senior US health official yesterday lauded China's transparency in its
fight against bird flu, and said the two countries are co-operating well in the
field.
"There is a definite willingness to be completely co-operative, be completely
transparent and to exchange samples with the WHO and with other partners so we
can track the genetic changes," Elias Zerhouni, director of the National
Institutes of Health, said when commenting on the current bird flu control
effort in China.
In addition to transparency, China has tremendously increased the amount of
scientific involvement in the prevention and control of the infection, he told a
news conference in Beijing.
The US and Chinese centres for disease control and agriculture ministries
were collaborating to improve the ability to detect and diagnose the virus early
and train experts, Zerhouni said.
"We are also co-operating in finding ways of increasing production of Tamiflu
both in the US and China, and we are co-operating in vaccine research to try to
develop effective vaccines," he said, adding the most important area to enhance
co-operation is to study how the virus is changing so that appropriate vaccines
could be developed more quickly.
Fundraising efforts
The Chinese central government, the Commission of European Union, and the
World Bank will jointly hold an international fund-raising conference for bird
flu control and prevention among poultry and human beings from January 17 to 18,
2006 in Beijing.
The conference will evaluate the financial and technology demands for bird
flu control in affected countries and regions, and mobilize various sides to
raise funds for the war against the epidemic, according to the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs.
To show the political commitment against avian influenza among various
countries, a "Beijing Declaration" will be signed at the conference to push
forward world co-operation in fighting the disease.
(China Daily 12/21/2005 page2)
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