Flu and H1N1 and H5N1 Vaccines

Scientists mutate bird flu to make it MORE contagious - but critics claim the 'bioweapon' must be kept secret. WHY?

The H5N1 bird flu virus has killed 500
people - and outbreaks sparked terror around the world about the
possibility of a global pandemic. So far, the virus has not been
contagious enough to pose a threat of a global pandemic. Sick people
don't pass it readily to the healthy. But that might change.


At a flu conference in Malta this
September, virologist Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Centre in the
Netherlands made an astounding, and terrifying, announcement. He
found that a few simple genetic tweaks to the virus made it far more
infectious among ferrets - a standard animal model used to study how
viruses spread among humans.

Fouchier found that a mere five mutations to the virus were sufficient to make it spread far more easily.
His genetic research was part of an international drive to understand H5N1 more fully.
But his discovery caused a storm of controversy.
It's traditional for scientific
research to be open - to allow fellow scientists to review the work of
others, repeat their methods and learn from them.

But in this case, many experts say that
the research should be suppressed - in case the new 'tweaked' virus is
used as a bioweapon. A more contagious version of H5N1 could be a
terrible weapon in the hands of terrorists. Fouchier's work is now
being scrutinised by an American committe called the National Science
Advisory Board for Biosecurity, says NPR.





Bioterrorism experts are aghast at
the idea of the research being released. 'It's just a bad idea for
scientists to turn a lethal virus into a lethal and highly contagious
virus,' says Dr Thomas Inglesby, director for the Centre for
Biosecurity at the Universuity of Pittsburgh.

'There are some cases that I think are
worth an exception to the principle of openness,' he told NPR. 'I can
only imagine that the process of deliberating about the publication of
these findings is quite serious.'
Fouchier is not going to comment until the committee has made its decision about whether the findings should be published.


Experiments involving other, different variants of the virus have been published in the journal Virology.
Experts are divided about the benefits
of publication - with some saying that the benefits of publishing, and
studying, new variants of viruses can outweigh the risks.

Source:-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2063326/Scientists-mutate-bird-flu-make-MORE-contagious--critics-claim-bioweapon-kept-secret.html