Under heavy pressure from the World Health Organization and a host of researchers around the globe, the Indonesian government has agreed to open up access to the genetic codes of the H5N1 virus that has afflicted dozens of people in the country. Until now, the codes, or sequences, have been restricted to a handful of WHO labs. Researchers have been seeking access to the codes in order to study the way the virus may be mutating. Indonesian officials, who have seemed largely stumped when it comes to organizing a response to the threat, say they just found out that researchers have been clamoring for the data. Much of the world has been alarmed by news that at least one of these Indonesian strains has spread human-to-human in a family cluster, making it one of the most virulent strains to date.
- read the article on bird flu from The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)