Indonesia to Begin H5N1 Vaccination Despite WHO Recommendations

August 27, 2007

Indonesia has ignored the suggestion of the World Health Organization (WHO) to stockpile its anti-bird flu vaccines and has decided to use the vaccines after September due to the rise of fatality caused by avian influenza virus in the country, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said recently.

The WHO wants Indonesia to keep the vaccine and to use them if a pandemic occurs.

Minister Supari says the vaccines would be used after all clinical trials were complete in September.

"We will use the vaccine after September, [as] in September all clinical tests finish," she says.

The number of fatalities from the virus rose to 82 out of 103 cases in Indonesia - the hardest-hit - prompting health authorities to take stern measures.

Regarding the WHO's suggestion, the minister says, "We do not need its [WHO] approval. They have no right to reject."

Minister Supari says she wants to discuss the implementation of the vaccination with experts soon and says Indonesia, in collaboration with the U.S.-based drug maker Baxter, has already produced two million doses anti bird flu vaccine for humans.

Triono Soendoro, the head of the research center for anti-bird flu vaccine of the ministry, says the reason not to meet WHO suggestions to stockpile the vaccine is because it would take time to use material from stockpiling to become vaccine.

"From stockpiling to become vaccine takes about two months, while the pandemic already occurs. That makes us have the idea of vaccination to protect people," Soendoro says.

And he says that the number of cases keeps rising in the worst-hit avian influenza country.

Huge territory, traditional ways of raising chickens in backyard pens and lack of obedience of provincial administration in implementing the Jakarta decision to stop the virus spread are among the obstacles in fighting the bird flu in the country.

Experts fear that millions of people could die should the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus mutate into a form that can make it transmittable among humans.

So far, 192 people have died globally out of 319 contracted people, according to the WHO.

- Xinhua




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