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 GENEVA (AP) - The U.N. health chief on Wednesday harshly criticized countries that do not share their H5N1 virus samples, accusing them of crippling the world in the fight against a possible flu pandemic.
"If you do not share the virus with us ... I would fail you," said Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, in a speech to the agency's 193 member countries. Without H5N1 samples from affected countries, Chan said that "you are tying my hands, you're muffling my ears, you're blinding my eyes."
Chan did not single out any country by name, but Indonesia and China have been the main holdouts. Indonesia in particular has been locked in a virus stand off with WHO since last year.
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