Deadly bird flu studies to stay secret for now - WHO
Baku, February 24 (AZERTAC). Two studies showing how scientists mutated the H5N1 bird flu virus into a form that could cause a deadly human pandemic will be published only after experts fully assess the risks, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday (yesterday morning, Singapore time). Speaking after a high-level meeting of flu experts and United States security officials in Geneva, a WHO official said a deal had been reached in principle to keep details of the controversial work secret until deeper risk analyses could be carried out. The WHO called the meeting to break a deadlock between scientists who have studied the mutations needed to make H5N1 bird flu transmit between mammals, and the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), which wanted the work censored before it was published in scientific journals. Biosecurity experts fear mutated forms of the virus that the research teams in The Netherlands and the United States independently created could escape or fall into the wrong hands and be used to spark a pandemic worse than the 1918-19 outbreak of Spanish flu that killed up to 40 million people. "There is a preference from a public health perspective for full disclosure of the information in these two studies. However, there are significant public concerns surrounding this research that should first be addressed," said Dr Keiji Fukuda, the WHO`s assistant director-general for health security and environment. Biosecurity experts fear mutated forms of the virus that research teams in The Netherlands and the US independently created could escape or fall into the wrong hands and be used to spark a pandemic. The H5N1 virus is known to have infected nearly 600 people worldwide since 2003, killing half of them. Last year, two teams of scientists - one led by Dr Ron Fouchier at Erasmus Medical Center and another led by Dr Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin - said they had found that just a handful of mutations would allow H5N1 to spread like ordinary flu between mammals, and remain as deadly as it is now. Asked about the potential bioterrorism risks of his and the US team`s work, Dr Fouchier said "it was the view of the entire group" at the meeting that the risks "would be very, very slim".
