Failed promises and the Director General

WHO's Director General is talking tough, but is she talking tough to the right people? We don't know, but we can keep our eye open for results:

Addressing concerns raised by developing countries such as Indonesia, Chan said she was committed to finding ways of distributing potentially life-saving vaccines in the event of a human influenza pandemic.

"WHO recognises the concern of many developing countries and I am fully behind you. That's why we are taking a series of actions to make sure that developing countries have equitable access to affordable pandemic vaccines," she said.

Chan also stressed that any move to withhold virus samples by countries with human cases threatened the United Nations' agency's effort to prevent and confront a pandemic.

Indonesia, the country worst hit by the virus, said on Tuesday it had resumed sending H5N1 samples to WHO laboratories after a five-month hiatus imposed because Jakarta said that the samples were being used for profit by drugs companies.

Sharing samples with the WHO's network of collaborative laboratories is deemed vital to see if viruses have mutated, become drug resistant or grown more transmissible.

"If you do not share the virus with us, I want to be absolutely honest with you, I will fail you," Chan told a technical briefing of country representatives during the WHO's annual assembly of 193 member states.

"I will fail you because you are tying my hands, you are muffling my ears, you are blinding my eyes," she said. (Reuters)

Great. These are the right things to say. They are true. They are pointed, especially to the 17 nations, led by Indonesia, who are threatening to withhold viral specimens until they can be assured of some share of any human bird flu vaccine that might be developed using them. Indonesia has attracted the most attention, both because it is currently the world's hot spot for confirmed human cases of H5N1 and because it has been most vocal in its objections to sharing samples. But another country is also a problem.

China has also been less than forthcoming with bird flu samples. No H5N1 viruses have been received from China for nearly a year -- during which time Beijing has reported several human bird flu cases. China is readying five virus samples to be shared with WHO, but it is unknown when they will actually be sent, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said. (AP)

Dr. Chan was China's candidate, pushed hard and persistently by them. At the time opinion was split as to whether her special relationship and knowledge of the Chinese system and it public health professionals would make her more or less effective in getting compliance out of a country with a bad track record of transparency. We were among the doubters (see here, here, here, here and here for some of the background), but we hoped for the best once the decision had been made.

The results are meager when it comes to sharing virus, at least so far. Now the issue is again high profile, but Dr. Chan has yet to "fail" China.

If she can't get results out of her patron, then we will have to be absolutely honest with her: We will fail her. Not that it's so important what we think. What's important is whether Dr. Chan fails us, not in the sense of judging us but by failing to perform on our behalf. She can start by persuading China to provide the viral isolates they promised.