Bird flu, WHO and Indonesia

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that Indonesia will no longer require an outside laboratory to confirm test results for bird flu.

The WHO has also acknowledged 15 formerly unconfirmed H5N1 avian flu cases which have occurred in Indonesia since a virus-sharing partnership with the country stalled late last year.

WHO says it has confidence in the country's capacity to accurately diagnose cases following a formal assessment of Indonesia's national testing laboratory which was carried out by a team of WHO virologists and laboratory scientists.

The team were from the WHO collaborating centre in Tokyo, the national influenza centres of India and Thailand, the WHO regional office for Southeast Asia and the WHO's country office for Indonesia.

Indonesia now joins China, Cambodia and Thailand as countries that do not need an outside laboratory to confirm their diagnoses.

Of the 15 Indonesian cases which were belatedly confirmed there were 13 deaths, taking the death toll worldwide to 185 from 12 countries.

Worldwide there have been 306 confirmed cases of bird flu and Indonesia has been the worse hit to date with a total of 76 deaths in 93 cases.

As many as 200 million birds have either died or been culled because of the virus.

According to the WHO, seven of the newly confirmed cases were known to have been exposed to sick or dead poultry but no source of infection was found for the other eight cases.

The cases date back to January this year with most occurring in March.

Vietnam's comes second with 93 cases of which 42 have died; Vietnam has not recorded a case of H5N1 in humans since November 2005.

The impasse over virus sharing is linked to Indonesia's demands that it and other poor H5N1-affected countries should have guaranteed and affordable access to any H5N1 vaccines in the event the virus triggers a pandemic.

The H5N1 virus essentially remains a virus of birds, but experts fear it could change into a form easily transmitted from person to person triggering a pandemic with the potential to kill millions.

Most human cases have been the result of direct or indirect contact with infected birds.