Researchers behind the extra-contagious avian flu agree to take a pause

One of the biggest fears facing us when it comes to possible pandemics would have to be the dreaded H5N1 avian influenza that scientists believe could be the most dangerous influenza facing man at this point.

Or at least it was until recently when researchers at both Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands and the University of Wisconsin discovered a way to develop a strain of the H5N1 that was capable of passing easily between ferrets. This is important because ferrets are used as models of how influenzas can affect humans.

Under normal conditions the H5N1 is extremely virulent in humans with mortality running at between 60 and 80 percent but is far less contagious meaning it needs prolonged contact with infected birds or humans.

The research by Fouchier, Kawaoka and other labs was intended to identify those mutations, giving researchers an idea of what to look for in naturally evolving influenza, and perhaps allowing for early warning of strains that are just a few mutations away from causing human pandemics. But when the general outlines of the research became public—detailed descriptions await formal publication, and key details will be redacted at the request of a federal biosecurity committee—outrage followed.

Critics, including many high-profile virologists, epidemiologists and biosecurity experts, said it was possible that would-be biological terrorists could use the research to develop weaponized flu strains. Another, perhaps more frightening possibility was unintentional release: dozens of accidental infections (PDF) have occurred at high-security laboratories in the United States, and it’s thought that one now-global flu strain may actually have escaped from a Russian laboratory in the 1970s. Against these risks, the benefits were arguable, and some virologists even said that mutations engineered in a laboratory didn’t necessarily illuminate future dangers.

via Ars Technica

So in light of these well deserved fears researchers involved in the projects have agreed to a 60 day moratorium that will see a pause in any further engineering and experiments on the existing mutated strains while the researchers find ways to allay these well founded fears.