印尼与美公司签禽流感疫苗协议

Indonesia Signs Deal with U.S. Company on Bird Flu Vaccine

印尼政府与美国制药商百特医疗用品有限公司签署了一项开发人体禽流感疫苗的协议。印尼卫生部表示，根据协议，印尼将向百特提供H5N1型禽流感病毒样本，百特则提供技术协助开发疫苗。

这一消息很可能会引起争议，因为雅加达星期二决定停止跟外国实验室分享人体禽流感病毒样本，以便保护印尼对这一致命病毒毒株的知识产权。世界卫生组织说，它对印尼的这项决定感到担心，正在跟印尼卫生部讨论此事。

印尼是世界上死于禽流感人数最多的国家。

Indonesia's government has signed a deal with the U.S. drug manufacturer Baxter International to develop a human bird flu vaccine. The Indonesian Health Ministry says, under the agreement, Indonesia will provide strains of the H5N1 virus to the company, which will in turn offer technical expertise to help develop a vaccine.

The announcement is likely to stir controversy because Jakarta Tuesday decided to stop sharing human bird flu virus samples with foreign laboratories in efforts to protect its intellectual property rights on the deadly strain. The World Health Organization says it is concerned about Indonesia's decision, and is discussing the situation with Indonesia's Health Ministry.

Indonesia has the highest number of human bird flu deaths in the world.