By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - World Health Organization officials said on Tuesday they are "scurrying" to reach an agreement that ensures developing countries most at risk from an influenza pandemic will get the vaccines they need.

Indonesia has put the issue on the front burner by saying it will only share samples of the H5N1 avian influenza virus if it has guarantees they will not be used to make vaccines that will profit a company or another country.

This worries scientists and health officials.

"We need to be keeping tabs on this virus on a monthly basis," Dr. David Heymann, WHO's top bird flu official in Geneva, said in a telephone interview.

Officials in Indonesia, a developing country that is by far the nation worst hit by avian influenza with 66 deaths, fear it will be last on the list to get a vaccine against H5N1 should the disease evolve into a pandemic.

But WHO is careful not to criticize Indonesia. "We are really very grateful for what they have done even though it has made us scurry," Heymann said.

"Indonesia's concerns are our concerns as well."

Sixteen manufacturers from 10 countries are developing prototype pandemic influenza vaccines against H5N1.

WHO has called a meeting in Jakarta next week to sort out the best ways of making sure companies can make more vaccines against influenza, and that these vaccines will be available to all who need them.

In addition, WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan will be meeting with the chief executive officers of companies that make vaccines.

And the organization is also seeking advice from groups such as the GAVI Alliance, formerly known as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, a public-private group that concentrates on childhood vaccines in poor countries.

The H5N1 avian flu virus has killed 169 out of the 281 people known to have been infected. It has swept through poultry across Asia to Africa and Europe. Experts believe it could mutate into a form that would easily pass from one person to another, killing tens of millions in months.

ONLY ONE SOLUTION

A vaccine would be the only solution. But current vaccines only protect against very specific strains of flu -- there is no vaccine that works against all types of influenza.

Few companies make vaccines, and total world capacity is only about 300 million to 400 million doses of vaccine a year -- far below what would be needed in a pandemic.

And it takes months to make a new flu vaccine, because current technology is ponderous.

The best hope for a vaccine against a new pandemic would be for all companies to get samples of the new virus as it emerges and to begin work immediately on a vaccine to fight it.

If countries do not share, it will only hold things up.

"In the world there is not enough vaccine capacity to talk about equitable access. We need to increase production capacity," Heymann said.

"That can only be done by transferring capacity to developing countries, as well." In other words, helping them to build their own vaccine plants.

Indonesia has discussed patenting its samples of virus to protect its interests, Heymann said.

WHO would discourage this, he said.

"We are looking for free sharing of viruses, and assurances to developing countries that there will be mechanisms, that they do have a right to benefit from viruses that they share," he said.

One possibility is a "virtual" stockpile, "where industry agrees every time you make a new vaccine to put a certain amount aside for developing country use," Heymann said.

AlertNet news is provided by