Scientists asked to resume the study of bird flu to prevent a pandemic

Los cientificos piden reanudar el estudio de la gripe aviar para evitar una pandrmia
Madrid - 26-01-2012

http://sociedad.elpais.com/sociedad/2012/01/26/actualidad/1327593418_274803.html

Scientists asked to resume the study of bird flu to prevent a pandemic


Yoshihiro Kawaoka said it was "irresponsible and dangerous" to continue the experiments for fear of bioterrorism

Slowdown in the experiments with mutant virus of bird flu
"We must share data to prevent a pandemic H5N1"
The virus that opened a flood of alerts, EMILIO DE BENITO

Agencies / El Pais Madrid 26 ENE 2012 - 16:56 CET

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The head of research at one of the studies that have shown that the avian influenza virus (H5N1) can be transmitted through airborne droplets, Yoshihiro Kawaoka, today called for resuming trials, interrupted after the Government U.S. asked to scientific journals Nature and Science not to publish the details of the investigation "so as not to be used by bioterrorists."
Kawaoka of the University of Tokyo (Japan) and Wisconsin-Madison (USA), voluntarily agreed to delay for 60 days the publication of his research to allow time for debate on the safety or risk that may present to make public its work. So did Ron Fouchier, a virologist at Erasmus University Medical Center, head of other team has also found mutations that would contagious bird flu. But now, told Nature, the Japanese have decided to stress the importance of study and ensure that detainees would be "irresponsible and dangerous", since the bird flu virus is deadly and "can cause pandemics."
Kawaoka cited as an example of how dangerous this virus outbreak in Spain during the second decade of last century. "He killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people around the world," he maintains. In his current morphology can only be contracted through close contact with ducks, chickens or other birds that carry the virus, and in no case can be transferred through infected. But according to research by Kawaoka, three mutations induced by the virus can become transmissible through the air between ferrets, which are considered good models of how the human flu. If these mutations were to be transmitted between humans, "could spark a deadly pandemic," says the scientist.
From Holland, virologist Ron Fouchier also defends the need to publish this research. "If we do not share information with the rest of the scientific community, it will be difficult to prevent a possible pandemic," El Pais said last week. "We are working at maximum biosafety and there are risks, of course. But the greater the benefits of preventing a possible avian flu pandemic. These obstacles hinder scientific development. In the U.S., however, the danger of bioterrorism seems enormous, "he added.

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