Surveillance, response, and responsibilities in the 2005 international health regulations

This chapter provides a historical overview of the initial response to H5N1 in Indonesia. The chapter charts how countries like Indonesia appeal global cooperation that they observe as failing in benefit to their particular situation. Pandemic influenza is one of the most prominent threats on the agenda for the World Health Organization (WHO), prompted in large part by fears about H5N1 influenza. A critical component of the WHO response to potential pandemics is its Global Influenza Surveillance Network (GISN), which helps monitor flu viruses and manufacture vaccines. Shortly after human cases of H5N1 re-emerged in 2003, WHO started reporting surveillance information and collecting samples of the virus through GISN. Although global demand for surveillance may have increased with the spread of avian influenza, the incidence of disease complicated if not diminished demand by Indonesia, where H5N1 was most prevalent. Since H5N1 was initially seen as a threat to biological diversity and an invasive pathogen rather than an indigenous organism.