# 4632
Although it hasn’t appeared on their website yet, Margaret Chan – Director General of the World Health Organization – has issued a strong rejection of the criticisms lodged in a recent BMJ article that intimated that their decisions regarding the pandemic were unduly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry.
WHO chief rejects claim that swine flu decision was influenced by advisers' drug company links
By Eliane Engeler (CP) –
GENEVA — The head of the World Health Organization on Tuesday strongly rejected suggestions that her decisions about swine flu were influenced by advisers' links to pharmaceutical companies.
"At no time, not for one second, did commercial interests enter my decision-making," WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said.
She also dismissed claims the global health body had stirred unnecessary public fear over the pandemic.
When a link to the official statement appears, I try to get it posted here. My thanks to Lisa Schnirring of CIDRAP for the heads up on this.
Meanwhile the WHO has issued a bare-bones report on the fatal H5N1 case I mentioned last week out of China (see China Reports H5N1 Victim).
While details are scant, this is unusually rapid acknowledgement of an H5N1 case for China.
Avian influenza – situation in China
8 June 2010 -- The Ministry of Health in China has announced a new confirmed human cases of H5N1 infection. The case is a 22-year-old pregnant female from Hubei Province. She had onset of symptoms on 23 May and died on 3 June. Investigations into the source of her infection indicate exposure to sick and dead poultry. Close contacts of the case are being monitored and to date all remain well.
Of the 39 cases confirmed to date in China, 26 have been fatal.
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