August 2007

    News > Jakarta, August 20, 2007
Indonesia Sends H5N1 Virus Samples from Bali Cases to WHO

Jakarta, August 20, 2007 - Ministry of Health -Indonesia has sent specimen of H5N1 virus to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, (CDC Atlanta), USA, on Thursday, August 16, 2007. It is sent by National Institute of Health Research & Development (Balitbangkes) MOH through NAMRU-2 (Naval Medical Research Unit-2) USA, which is located in Balitbangkes building at Jl. Percetakan Negara, Jakarta.

The specimens include throat and nose wiping specimens from AI positive case, NLP (f, 29 years), who lived at Jembrana District, Bali, and AI suspect case, NKP (f, 2 years 9 months), who also lived in Bali, with laboratory result of H5N1 negative.

Those specimen observations in CDC Atlanta laboratory have been done and reveal the same result with two referral laboratories in Indonesia, that are Laboratories of Balitbangkes and Eijkman Molecular Biological Institution. NLP is positive, while NKP is negative.

Complete sequence of new specimen will be finished in the next 2-3 weeks. It purposes to prove that there is no mutation of H5N1 virus and to show global community that Bali is safe place to visit. This information is mentioned by Dr. Endang Tri Sedyaningsih, head of Center for Biomedical & Pharmaceutical Research & Development, on Thursday, August 16, 2007.

Actually, Indonesia is awaiting WHO mechanism, arranging virus sharing and the benefit for original countries, especially developing countries. It proves Indonesian good will to cooperate with WHO in studying H5N1 virus development. Though it is flexible enough to consider global interest, and especially the Indonesians, Indonesia expects WHO could immediately finish global mechanism of virus sharing to ensure transparent and fair sharing.

WHO Assistant-Director General for Communicable Disease, Dr. David Heymann, appreciates Indonesia for sharing virus of Bali cases. WHO agrees it would be used for risk assessment interest and not placing sequence data of H5N1 virus from Indonesia at public domain and not transferring it to third party without permission from Indonesia govt. until Standard Terms of Condition and Terms of Reference are determined.

For more information on the issue of virus sharing, please see: www.depkes.go.id

This information is published by Center for Public Communication, Secretariat General MOHRI. For further information, please call 021-522 3002 and 5296 0661 or send e-mail to: puskom.publik@yahoo.co.id .

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