1. Emerging Epidemic Infections and Experimental Medical Treatments
Session 3: Equity in Access to Treatment
Chair: José R. Lapa e Silva MD PhD
Professor of Pulmonary Medicine
Federal Univ of Rio de Janeiro

2. Case Study 6 H5N1: Flu vaccine suply for those who contributed to seed stock
Presenter: Dr. Voo Teck Chuan, Assistant Professor at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore

3. Case Study 7 An emerging disease – Kayasanur Forest Disease (KFD) – strikes a tribal district in Kerala, India, for the first time
Presenter: Dr. Jayakrishnan Thavody is an Associate Professor of Community Medicine and Head of the UNESCO Bioethics Unit at the Government Medical College Kozhikode, in Kerala, India

4. Key themes/questions for discussion
What do we mean by equity in the context of access to treatments (which may be experimental)?
Is it acceptable to allow treatment for an international health care worker when the treatment may not be available to local workers?
What is the ethical relevance of whether a population has contributed to the development of a treatment (e. g., through providing virus samples)when considering who should have access to treatment
How should individuals respond to inequities in treatment that they did not cause?
What is the relationship between research funding and equitable access to successful interventions?