Via BBC Brasil: A polêmica do envio de amostras brasileiras de zika vírus ao exterior.[Controversy about sending Brazilian Zika virus samples out of the country] Edited excerpt from the Google translation:
Complaints of American and European scientists about difficulties in accessing the Brazilian zika virus samples have been widely reported by the international press in recent days. According to reports, the country was hampering the delivery of important research material for the development of diagnostic kits, medicines and vaccines.
The reasons, according to experts polled by BBC Brazil, are legal obstacles and attempts to get foreign researchers to study the disease in Brazil, in partnership with the scientists here, and not in their home countries.
The aim would be to ensure that any scientific advances benefit primarily the Brazilian population - the hardest hit so far by the Zika epidemic. For many, however, it is unnecessary protectionism on a global epidemic.
According to the complaints, foreign researchers must use of samples of past pandemics - in places such as French Polynesia and Uganda - to do their jobs, which is not considered ideal.
In an interview with the AP news agency, Paulo Gadelha, president of Fiocruz (Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, linked to the Ministry of Health), said he could not send samples abroad because of the new law that protects the national genetic heritage, not yet regulated.
The law is important to avoid situations that have already occurred in the past, like the case in which blood samples of Yanomami Indians ended up in the United States without authorization. The same rule also protects the environmental heritage, avoiding, for example, the removal of native plants in the country, which could cause economic damage.
