2009-05-15 16:21:01 -
GENEVA (AP) - The World Health Organization's director urged countries Friday to share swine flu samples, warning that the virus could become more severe as it spreads around the globe.
WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan praised countries for their aggressive response to the new flu virus.
«Their timely sharing of viruses for risk assessment and analysis and for making seed vaccine is commendable,» Chan said before a meeting of the global body's 193 members in Geneva next week. «We are getting new data daily.
But she said the virus might become more severe as it spreads further in the southern hemisphere and possibly mixes with other flu viruses there. Chan said no one knows what change might occur in the H5N1 bird flu virus should the swine flu outbreak develop into a pandemic.
Chan says swine flu, which so far has been milder than bird flu in human infections, quickly demonstrated that it can jump easily from person to person.
«We expect this pattern of international spread to continue,» said Chan, who spoke at a meeting about how flu viruses should be shared and vaccines should be distributed in the case of a pandemic.
The swine flu virus has sickened 7,520 people in 34 countries, with 65 deaths, since it was first identified in April, according to WHO figures. Bird flu, on the other hand, has infected 423 people mostly in Asia since 2003, but it killed 258, more than half of the people who caught it.
WHO member countries have been trying since 2007 to come up with specific rules under which they will share virus samples with the global body and international health experts.
A number of countries, led by Indonesia, have strongly opposed sharing their bird flu virus samples with WHO, arguing that poor nations would be giving valuable material to drug companies for the production of vaccines that they couldn't then afford.
Chan suggested the threat of a pandemic from swine flu might provide momentum for countries to resolve the delicate question of virus sharing.
«We are meeting at a time of crisis that could have global implications,» Chan said. «What the world needs most, right now, urgently, is information at all possible levels.
The issue will be discussed at WHO's annual World Health Assembly, which opens Monday.
Associated Press writer Frank Jordans contributed to this report.
