# 1031
Helen Branswell brings us this report on an international meeting being held in Singapore to discuss the sharing of vital scientific information, such as avian flu virus samples.
While proclaiming that they are cooperating, countries like Indonesia and China continue to stall and delay sending samples to the WHO for analysis.
While this issue was openly fought in the press a couple of months ago, apparently now tense, lower profile negotiations are being pursued.
International meeting tackles impasse on avian flu research
Wed, August 1, 2007
By HELEN BRANSWELL, CP
SINGAPORE -- With little fanfare or public attention, representatives of 24 countries began yesterday to try to resolve a virus-sharing impasse that is undermining the world's ability to chart the pandemic threat posed by H5N1 avian flu.
But rather than hailing the meeting as a way to break the troubling logjam, some scientists and public health officials are watching with trepidation, worrying the process may hinder the way research into influenza and other infectious diseases is conducted.
"We're very conscious this is a precedent-setting meeting, as are most of the delegations," said Dr. David Heymann, head of communicable diseases for the World Health Organization, under whose auspices the five-day meeting is taking place.
That's because the talks could change the conditions under which biological materials are provided to the WHO for global surveillance of and research on influenza viruses.
Depending on what is decided, the consequences could ripple far beyond the science of flu, experts say, conceivably affecting, for example, the pharmaceutical industry's ability to make and update an eventual HIV vaccine or limiting how quickly the world could respond to the next SARS-like disease outbreak.
