Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Developed Countries Agree to Share Benefits of Bird Flu Virus

Wednesday, 17 December, 2008

The Intergovernmental Meeting on Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (IGM-PIP) in Geneva, Switzerland, ended on December 13, having achieved significant progress.

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari led the Indonesian Delegation, accompanied by the delegation's deputy, Widjaja Lukito, a Senior Adviser to the Minister, and a senior official from the Foreign Affairs Department Makarim Wibisono, who is also an adviser on international relations at the Health Department.

The IGM meeting concluded five agreements.

Widjaja Lukito told Tempo today (17/12) that the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) was the main achievement from this meeting.

SMTA is a document arranging the virus transfer including its standard and universal parts with the full strength of the law.

Widjaja went on to say that the SMTA principles were also approved in this meeting and mentioned it as a second achievement.

The principles include the system of benefit sharing that had been proposed by Indonesia with the support of 11 countries from the South East Asia Regional Organization (SEARO), Brazil, and the African Regional Office (AFRO).

�It has even been approved that the 60-year-old WHO Global Influenza Surveillance Network System will be replaced with a new mechanism with new name that will change the virus benefit sharing,� said Widjaja.

The Health Minister suggested the new mechanism should be fair, transparent, and equal.

The new system is to be called the WHO Influenza Network.

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