Indonesia Health Minister Slams US Doctor For Helping Tree Man

Indonesia's health minister, Siti Fadilah Supari, lambasted the US doctor currently treating the 35-year-old man, who has the rare affliction caused by the Human Papilloma Virus.

Mrs Supari is angry that Dr Anthony Gaspari has taken blood and tissue samples out of the country to the United States in a bid to diagnose the illness. She claims such samples could be used in the future to make vaccines that the poor could not afford.

Developing nations such as Indonesia risk exploitation unless they maintain control over their virus strains, Mrs Supari said.

But her comments have now offended Dr Gaspari, an American dermatologist at the University of Maryland, who maintains that, while he took the samples without permission, his sole motivation was getting treatment for the man.

Known simply as Dede, the man, who lives in a village south of the capital Jakarta, has massive root-like warts growing from his arms and legs which have gone untreated for years.

The logic and reasoning of the health minister is simply astonishing. He'd rather watch thousands or millions of people suffer around the world because he thinks that Indonesia should control their virus strains.

Actually, I think it's even worse than that. It's astonishingly stupid.

Virus strains know no boundaries. With modern travel, anyone can transmit a virus halfway around the world in a matter of hours. It's what has epidemiologists worried about avian flu strains that might mutate into versions that can be transmitted from person to person. And yet, Mrs Supari has, refused to share samples of the deadly H5N1 strain of the avian flu until she receives assurances they will not be used to make expensive pandemic vaccines.

Despite talking about costs, cost isn't the concern here - control is. The Indonesian government thinks it can control access, and the assurances are really a cut of whatever is being made.

So, instead of furthering scientific understanding of the various ailments, Indonesia is standing in the way of vaccine development that could potentially save the lives of millions of people and/or other medical discoveries because of parochial concerns.

Indonesia wants control over something that it is incapable of dealing with. In fact, Indonesian doctors have been incapable of treating this man's condition for years. Yet, the Indonesian government wants to condemn this man and many others to continued suffering because they want to control something beyond their abilities.

HT: Ace