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China is the latest country to be hoarding its bird flu samples, according to a Reuters report today. China has not shared any human H5N1 samples of bird flu with World Health Organization-accredited laboratories since April 2006—even though it has seen five more human infections—leading to fears that the country may be obstructing global efforts to track changes in the virus and fight it. Indonesia has also been refusing to share its bird flu samples with the WHO (opting for a private deal instead), and only consented to resume sample-sharing after reaching an agreement with the WHO after a two-day crisis meeting last month in Jakarta. The meeting concluded with the WHO promising to develop a new mechanism for sample-sharing that would be fairer to poorer countries.

Indonesia had stopped sharing samples because, the country's officials argued, the samples led to expensive vaccinations, which Indonesia then found difficult to afford. China's decision, however, has less to do with drug access than with protecting the samples for its own homegrown laboratories. But China also resents the way scientists and health experts in the developed world monopolize drug production and knowledge. Chinese scientists were particularly irked when, after sending samples to the WHO in 2004, their analyses and work were published in a journal by foreigners—with no credit given to the Chinese scientists. The foreign researchers have since apologized, but the experience has clearly impacted China's views about collaborating with international experts. Even so, Henk Bekedam, the WHO's representative in China, is confident that China will soon resume its sample-sharing. But without guarantees of the same nature as Indonesia's, there's good reason to be skeptical.

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Indonesia, the country with the highest number of human bird flu victims, has decided to share samples of its H5N1 virus with drug manufacturer Baxter International instead of the World Health Organization. In return, Indonesia will gain full access to any vaccine Baxter develops, according to the agreement. The move comes as the WHO is striving to extend international sharing arrangements for seasonal flu strains and potential pandemics, so the global health body is very concerned about the deal.

Baxter has made it clear, though, that Indonesia's decision not to share with the WHO has nothing to do with its agreement. So why is Indonesia refusing to collaborate now? Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari explains:

[Specimens sent to the WHO] have been forwarded to their collaborating centre. There they have been used for various reasons such as vaccine development or research.

Later they sold the discovery to us… This is not fair. We are the ones who got sick, they took the sample through WHO and with WHO consent and they tried to produce it for their own use.”

The WHO fears that everyone will lose out if other countries follow suit. Drugs would likely become more expensive for those countries not party to a private deal with a drug company. Ironically, through its arrangement with Baxter, Indonesia could actually be making its problems worse in the long run.

The bird flu hysteria that gripped the world's media outlets and health organizations has been subsiding for some time now. It's been a number of years since the first panicked reports of the H5N1 virus emerged. Sure, this week Thailand registered its first bird flu fatality this year, but the virus hasn't mutated into a form that can be transmitted between humans and the world hasn't suffered an avian influenza pandemic. And now, it looks like the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline may have created a cheap vaccine.

Initial trials have been very successful, and the worst side-effects appear to be limited to "a mild fever". The vaccine can be mass-produced easily and costs no more than $7 a shot. Glaxo is already speaking with a number of international bodies and health NGOs - not to mention George W. Bush and officials at the Gates Foundation - about distributing the vaccine en masse by 2007. Perhaps we'll soon add bird flu to the list of recent health scares like SARS that never lived up to their billing. But what will we do about all those stockpiles of tamiflu?