Brazil will send Zika samples to US for testing
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Brazilian officials say they’re sending a set of samples related to the Zika outbreak to the United States, a move which follows complaints that the country was hoarding disease data and biological material.
The announcement came hours after The Associated Press revealed that international health officials were frustrated at Brazil’s refusal to share enough viral samples and other information to answer the most worrying question about the outbreak: Whether the disease is truly causing a spike in babies born with abnormally small heads.
US and UN officials said Brazil probably shared fewer than 20 samples while experts said hundreds or thousands of samples are needed to track the virus’ evolution and develop accurate diagnostics and effective drugs and vaccines.
Many national laboratories are relying on older strains from outbreaks in the Pacific and Africa, the AP found.
The World Health Organisation sent out a flurry of messages acknowledging that existing data-sharing mechanisms were deficient.
“Given the complexity of unanswered questions on Zika ... our goal is to encourage all researchers to share their data ASAP,” the WHO said in a message posted to Twitter.
“Rapid data sharing is critical during an unfolding health emergency,” it said.
In a statement posted to its website on Thursday, Brazil’s health ministry said that two-thirds of the material gathered during recent field work with an American team would be shipped to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“This measure has been submitted to the National Committee of Ethics in Research which approved the project in full,” it said.
Still, a senior WHO doctor dismissed the importance of virus sharing.
When asked about the importance of sharing samples, Dr Sylvie Briand said obtaining samples wasn’t critical as the mosquito-borne virus had not mutated.
Zika was discovered in a Ugandan forest in 1947. Until last year it had never caused serious disease, but has now spread to more than 20 countries.
The news that Brazil was not sharing many virus samples came as a surprise to many senior scientists, including officials at WHO and elsewhere. Dr David Heymann, chair of WHO’s Zika emergency committee, said that virus-sharing was not discussed during a crisis meeting on Monday.
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