# 920
In an indication of just how concerned authorities in Indonesia have become over their inability to contain their H5N1 problem, Indonesia apparently wants to begin using a human vaccine as early as next month.
This from Reuters.
Indonesia promises bird flu vaccine
Jun 22, 2007
A vaccine to combat human bird flu could be ready as early as July, Indonesia says, adding it is prepared to use it immediately despite calls from the World Health Organisation to build up a stockpile first.
Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari says the WHO's advice is not realistic in the case of Indonesia, which has the highest number of bird flu deaths.
"WHO urged us to stockpile first. That may work for developed countries, where human cases are yet to appear, but we already have human cases, we are in the middle of a war and we should not be stockpiling anymore," she says.
WHO officials declined immediately to comment.
The minister says clinical trials should wrap up soon and the vaccine, which is being jointly developed with a unit of United States firm Baxter International Inc. should be ready for use as soon as July.
The Indonesian government and Baxter agreed in February to develop a vaccine.
Under the agreement, Indonesia has been supplying virus specimens, while Baxter is providing the technology to develop the vaccine.
"If a cluster like Karo appears, where human-to-human transmission is not immediately clear, Indonesia has the right to go ahead with vaccinations to prevent the spread of the virus," Supari says, referring to an outbreak in Sumatra last year.
The desire to begin using human vaccinations may be due, in part, to the report yesterday that the Indonesian strain of the virus is developing resistance to Tamiflu.
Supari denies this claim, and maintains Tamiflu is still effective. But one does wonder.
While the WHO may balk at the idea, I doubt they will have much control over what Indonesia does in this matter. The Indonesians have purchased this vaccine, and as a sovereign nation have the right to dispense it to their people.
