Global Health Institute

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched by the Government of China, provides a robust financing system and resources through which China can facilitate its global health strategy. The BRI spans countries that contain almost two-thirds of the world’s population and account for one-third of the world’s wealth, creating new opportunities for trade, investment, economic activities, technological innovation, and the movement of people.

From July 2005 to December 2007, Indonesia reported the highest number of influenza A (H5N1) human cases in the world: 116 cases, with an extremely high fatality rate of 81 percent. According to E.R. Sedyaningsih, author of "Towards Mutual Trust, Transparency and Equity in Virus Sharing Mechanism: The Avian Influenza Case of Indonesia," due to limited laboratory diagnostic capacities, all suspected human H5N1 cases were referred to one of the 100 designated Avian Influenza Referral Hospitals. Samples were collected from suspected patients and then sent to a reference laboratory in Jakarta for diagnostic testing and confirmation. Indonesian specialists also sent their clinical specimens to several international laboratories affiliated with the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Influenza Surveillance Network (GISN), but in January 2007, the government of Indonesia stopped sharing samples upon discovery that some of them had been provided to laboratories outside of the GISN without Indonesia’s consent.