Elect the commander of the front against bird flu

The issue of expanding the production of avian influenza vaccines and vaccines has occupied most of the time of the Minister of Health Ministers' Meeting in Ottawa, Canada (24 and 25 October). Representing the host country, Canadian Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh has suggested that ' there are countries with vaccine production capacity, we need to support them in technology transfer '.

Canadian Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh

Earlier, Indian authorities were wondering whether the risk of bird flu is high enough to aggressively remove the patent of Roche Company in the production of Tamiflu? Many ministers reiterated the WTO's 2003 decision to allow governments to defy patent issues in the event of widespread health problems.

Also at the conference, delegates considered a proposal by Mexico to say that rich countries should devote 10% of Tamiflu and other flu drugs to poor countries. Some countries say 5% is suitable for a more realistic situation.

Taiwan said it would make its own fake Tamiflu if it refused to license production and if a major outbreak broke out in the territory. Taiwan said there were two establishments that succeeded in producing 20g of Tamiflu within a month, which are considering mass production. The conference elected WHO as a "marshal" to prepare for a pandemic in humans, while the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) will lead the war in the world. animals.

In terms of bird flu situation, the EU has just issued a ban on ornamental birds, firstly within a month. China reported the seventh outbreak of the year and was also the third in a week, in which the latest battle in Hunan killed 550 chickens and another 2,500 poultry were destroyed. Taiwan claims it is a "critical moment" in disease prevention and says it is ready to spend $ 1.5 billion if outbreaks occur.

The European Union has confirmed that the H5N1 avian influenza virus was discovered from wild swans that died in Croatia last week. Meanwhile, officials on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion said they were suspicious of a tourist infected with bird flu. This person coughed and showed signs of fatigue after returning from Thailand recently.

MARINE ( According to JP, BKP, TST, Bloomberg, AP )