Last week, when the West Bengal government declared a red alert against small pox after reports of cases across the border in Bangladesh and Myanmar, it seemed like a rehearsal for doomsday. The anxiety lasted for hours before the scare was declared a false alarm.
For those who are 40 and above, the two scars on their upper arm, the small pox vaccine marks they received while in school, are reassuring.
Studies say the immunity lasts for over 50 years. This is like the assurance felt by the US and Russia, both of whom are holding on to scare weapons in the form of ariola major and variola minor viruses in their laboratories.
The monopoly over the viruses makes them useful as a possible weapon of bioterrorism and for research away from the public domain. Such is the reluctance to forgo the viruses that when the issue was brought up before the World Health Assembly of the World Health Organisation in May, destruction of the viruses was put off indefinitely and it was decided to review the research being done on them. The deadline set for the review was a distant 2011.
In January, the executive board of the WHO, which eradicated the pox in 1977, in a resolution requested the director-general of the body to ensure that any research undertaken does not involve genetic engineering of the variola viruses. This was triggered by fears of violation of the WHO's guidelines about sharing research on viruses with third parties, including corporates.
This fear was expressed most recently in the case of the avian flu virus when Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari announced her country's move to suspend sharing of viruses, calling the current WHO regime on the matter unfair. Indonesia found itself caught in a trap, like Sudan, Indonesia, Peru, Bangladesh, who all were hit by the avian flu virus but lost the rights to protect themselves. Reason: Someone else has bought the rights to do research on the virus. Inequity and greed can't get more morbid.
Indonesia gave its specimen of the H5N1 virus of avian flu to WHO's Global Influenza Surveillance Network, which comprises the WHO's collaborating research centres, which are national institutions located in developed countries. The GISN guarantees that the virus cannot be passed on to third parties without the knowledge of the country of origin.
Indonesia and many developing countries, however, found that the virus samples being given by them were being used in activities such as patenting and commercial production of vaccines and that too without their knowledge.
The developing countries are then being asked by the drug companies to buy vaccines made with the help of the viruses they supply freely under the WHO scheme. The prices quoted by the companies are too high for the countries. Hence Indonesia's angry reaction.
Meera Shiva, health activist and a member of the Third World Network was part of the World Health Assembly in May. She says this is the first case where violation of intellectual property rights in the case of genetic material, an avian flu virus, has come to light in the WHO.
The resolution of the WHA, forced to pay heed to the outrage of the third world countries, asked the WHO "to establish an international stockpile of vaccines for H5N1 or other influenza viruses of pandemic potential" and to formulate mechanisms to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines.
It also set up a working group to draw new terms of reference for the now-controversial GISN to make the use of viruses more transparent. Meera Shiva calls this a big victory for the third world countries and public health. If this will curb grasping corporates from bio-piracy only time will tell.