WHO Bows To Criticism, Creates Open Bird Flu Database
This article was originally published in PharmAsia News
Executive Summary
The World Health Organization has acceded to demands by Southeast Asian nations and established a public database of information to follow spreads of the strains of the bird flu virus. In the past, some nations refused to provide the United Nations agency with samples of their local H5N1 strains for fear they would be used by multinational pharmaceutical companies to produce a vaccine too expensive for poor countries. A WHO official acknowledged it was responding to a demand for transparency in its attempt to prevent a global pandemic of the flu. (Click here for more - may require a subscription