WHO Confirms 60th Bird Flu Case In Indonesia, Urges Sequence Sharing

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently confirmed the 60th person infected with avian influenza in Indonesia. To date 46 people have died from avian flu in Indonesia, which has the highest human fatality rate from the disease. According to the article, the WHO is encouraging countries to help to improve the international response to the avian and pandemic influenza threat by encouraging them to share bird flu sequence information.

In support of sequence sharing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently placed total genome sequences for over 40 avian influenza viruses into a public-access database. According to the WHO, sharing information on the gene sequences of bird flu viruses can help track the evolutionary changes in the virus and identify mutations, which is important for vaccine development.

According to the article, Indonesia has been criticised for not doing enough to control the spread of H5N1, with international researchers accusing the country of refusing to reveal human genome sequences data. As a result of this criticism, Indonesia recently agreed to share the sequences for viruses from the country’s avian flu patients.