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EDITOR'S PAGE

Several months ago, President Bush announced a national strategy to prepare for a possible avian influenza pandemic. Part of that strategy has already come to fruition. In February, FDA approved a new laboratory test that is designed to diagnose strains of bird flu within four hours.

Developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; Atlanta), the test will be distributed to approximately 140 labs designated as part of the Laboratory Response Network (LRN). Launched and overseen by CDC, LRN is a national network of local, state, and federal public health labs that provide the infrastructure and capacity to respond to biological and chemical terrorism and other public health emergencies. CDC has also shared the test technology with the World Health Organization (WHO; Geneva).

Although such a test represents admirable planning against a potentially lethal threat, the manner in which CDC obtained approval of its test has raised some concern about how the agency is making information available about avian influenza. According to industry sources, IVD manufacturers have been trying to obtain avian influenza samples from CDC so that they might begin developing bird flu tests. Despite such efforts, however, CDC has released no such samples to manufacturers.

Other health organizations have also been keeping to themselves information that could be useful to IVD manufacturers that are developing tests for avian influenza. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, WHO maintains a database that includes about 2300 genetic sequences of the avian flu virus. But while WHO has pressed China and other countries to share their bird flu data, it has closely controlled the massive amount of data in its own flu database, permitting access only to a limited number of select scientists.

In discussing WHO’s closed system, the WSJ article cited critics who argued that if the organization were to make its avian influenza data publicly available, other researchers might make discoveries in areas overlooked by WHO’s select group. The same suggestion certainly applies to CDC and the way it has controlled access to its own bird flu data.

Strains of avian influenza are continuing to spread around the world, and experts say that spring migrations may lead to further mutations that could put humans at greater risk. Considering the urgency and global implications of these developments, public health agencies would be wise to seek out as much help as others can provide. CDC, WHO, and other agencies should enlist the help of IVD manufacturers—and they should start by opening access to the information needed to speed the development of avian influenza diagnostics.