# 1869
A pity this article doesn't tell us how these talks went.
Relations between Indonesia and the US, particularly regarding their bird flu policy, are strained. Last week it was widely reported that our NAMRU-2 (Naval Medical Research Unit) had been banned from operating in Indonesia, and the issue of sharing virus samples has not been resolved.
Hopefully Secretary Leavitt will, at some point, be able to divulge some of the details of this meeting in his blog.
Indonesian leader meets U.S. health official over bird flu
www.chinaview.cn
2008-04-14 16:29:39
JAKARTA, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono discussed the issue of sending bird flu virus sample from the country to the World Health Organization with a senior U.S. health official here Monday.
The meeting between Susilo and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt mainly discussed procedures in the sending of virus sample to the WHO and Indonesia's access to bird flu medicines, Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari told reporters at the State Palace.
The Indonesian government demands a fair treatment from WHO, in terms that it can easily get the bird flu vaccine produced from a research using Indonesian samples, Supari said.
Indonesia has so far confirmed 133 bird flu cases in human with107 deaths since the virus was first reported in 2003.
It isn't clear from this article whether a meeting between Secretary Leavitt and Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari took place. Speculation, in the Jakarta Post, was that such a meeting would not take place.
U.S. secretary may skip talks with health minister
Abdul Khalik , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 04/14/2008 11:52 AM | Headlines
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt will meet here Monday with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to discuss health cooperation and bird flu, presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said Sunday.
"Secretary Leavitt will meet the President on Monday afternoon. The agenda is to enhance cooperation in the health sector, and of course also the bird flu problem," he told The Jakarta Post.
The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta confirmed Leavitt's one-day visit and his plan to meet Yudhoyono, but could not confirm if the health secretary would talk to his Indonesian counterpart, Siti Fadilah Supari.
An embassy employee earlier said there were no plans for a meeting between Leavitt and Siti, raising speculation of continuing tension following the Indonesian health minister's anti-American comments over bird flu.
Siti said Sunday she was unaware of Leavitt's planned visit to Jakarta.
"No, I don't know that," she said when questioned during an event in Jakarta to raise public awareness of the health risks associated with climate change.
Siti has accused the U.S. of producing "biological weapons" from bird flu samples sent by Indonesia to the World Health Organization.
In her book, Saatnya Dunia Berubah, Tangan Tuhan di Balik Flu Burung (It's Time for the world to change, divine hands behind bird flu), Siti writes of her suspicions about a conspiracy between the United States and the WHO.
She says the collection of bird flu samples from developing countries like Indonesia for the production of vaccines is a conspiracy to force the countries to buy expensive bird flu vaccines.
Siti also claims in the book that bird flu samples she sent to the WHO were used exclusively by 15 scientists at Los Alamos Laboratory in the United States.
The United States has flatly denied the accusation.
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