# 705
Expanding on the report I posted two days ago from the Indonesian press, English language papers are now carrying the story on the increasing rhetoric between the Indonesian Health Minister and the WHO.
Indonesia backtracks on promise to give WHO bird flu samples
By MARGIE MASON
AP Medical Writer
DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) -- Indonesia has gone back on its pledge to resume sending bird flu samples to the World Health Organization, while upping the rhetoric in a standoff that has pitted poor countries against the rich.
Health officials from the nation hardest hit by bird flu say it's unfair for WHO to simply hand over their H5N1 viruses to drug companies, arguing any vaccine produced from their specimens would likely be out of reach for many cash-strapped countries.
Some international scientists have accused the government of holding the virus hostage, keeping experts from monitoring whether it is mutating into a dangerous form that could spread easily among people.
"We don't care," Dr. Triono Soendoro, head of the National Institute for Health Research and Development, said to the mounting criticism, maintaining that his country was fighting for a bigger cause.
The government has reported 74 human deaths from bird flu since its first outbreak two years ago - more than a third of the world's total. They stopped sending viruses in January, using the samples as leverage against a system they say caters to the developed world.
But one month ago, Health Minister Siti Fadiliah Supari surprised all by announcing at a high-level meeting with WHO in Jakarta that she was ready to end the standoff. The WHO, in turn, promised not to share virus samples with vaccine companies without Indonesia's permission.
"We will start sending bird flu samples to the World Health Organization immediately," Supari told reporters at the time, saying she was satisfied with assurances offered by the global body.
But four weeks later no samples have been sent, Health Ministry spokeswoman Lily Sulistyowati told The Associated Press on Wednesday, and Supari's criticism of WHO's virus sharing system remains as harsh as ever.
