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Published online 26 November 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/450498d
News in Brief
Indonesia edges closer to sharing bird-flu samples
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Please note this is News in Brief, and so will be a short article.
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Eastern Asian countries are the soul source of providing isolates of different strains of respiratory viruses (Influenza or SARS)which are the raw materials required for conducting research in order to develop antiviral drugs and Vaccines. In my opinion sample provider should be encouraged by giving their name as authorship at least in the publication.Overall giving the name of sample provider as author in any scientific journal would not harm to the first author.(Intakhab,Germany).
By Mohammad's reasoning, the milkmaids Jenner observed the immunity conferred bv Cow Pox in should have been co-authors in his historic paper 'the causes and effects of variola vaccine'! Authorship must involve an intellectual not merely a material contribution, anything else should go in the acknowledgements section. (BTW sole not soul)
I doubt that co-authorship is on more than a few minds in this case. Instead, the fear is probably that the samples will be taken for the WHO, given to some (in the view of the donators) foreign pharmagiants who take all the samples they have, make a vaccine from it, and then only sell the vaccine at prices that many dying Indonesian citizens might not be able to afford. The desire isn't for credit; the desire is for control. To not have to rely on faceless outside corporations who do not have their best interests in mind. However, this is only a possibility.