WHO caucus about the most dangerous virus created by humans

22 international avian influenza experts will meet at the World Health Organization (WHO) this week to decide how far scientists can go on creating deadly viruses in the name of the department. learn.

>>>Super bird flu virus becomes a biological bomb?

WHO invited 22 guests to participate in this caucus meeting, including scientists who conducted the study, editor-in-chief of the famous Science and Nature scientific journals, and representatives of the Scientific Advisory Council. National for US biosafety (NSABB).

What boundary for science?

The hastily arranged meeting to resolve the controversy called for a ban on the publication of two scientific studies detailing the process of creating the type of virulent H5N1 avian influenza virus, possibly causing millions of people to die at the same time.

WHO held a meeting from 16-17 February in Geneva in the context of the creation of virulent H5N1 variants for scientists to publish research results, and biosafety regulators demand good censorship. revise scientific studies before these research results are published in scientific journals.

Since the two research groups, one in the Netherlands and one in the United States, have found that only a small number of genetic changes can cause the H5N1 virus to spread like a regular flu virus in the mammalian community, but still keep Originally, the meeting of WHO experts will most likely be extremely stressful and confidential.

The United Nations Health Agency said they were "extremely concerned about the possible consequences" from the work of two expert groups. In December, the two groups announced they had found a way to make H1N1 easy to spread to form a massive deadly pandemic.

Keiji Fukuda, WHO assistant general manager for environmental and health safety and who will lead the meeting, said that he wanted to ensure the consensus of experts in having published his research. These 2 groups or not, publish in whole or in part, and who has the right to view those studies.

Ron Fouchier is the leader of the Dutch research team
creating super-fast viral spread in the winter.

However, some experts say that, without censorship, any control could prevent bad-motivated scientists from having the tools to create and spread the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus if they wanted to.

Michael Osterholm, policy director at the Minnesota State Flu Research and Monitoring Center and a member of the NSABB, said he hoped little for such a meeting.'A meeting will not solve anything. This is a very complex issue, requiring the action of the international community, not the problem , " Osterholm said.

Can delete humanity

Ron Fouchier, the leader of the Dutch research group, created five gene variants for the H5N1 virus, capable of spreading faster, possibly killing millions of people at the same time. Fouchier said that knowledge about how to create this virus has an important role in developing new drugs and vaccines to prevent pandemics from happening.

Fouchier also said that other research groups around the world are approaching the same research results, and some groups just happen to discover this. Fouchier admits that the virus he created is 'one of the most dangerous viruses a human can produce,' because it can spread from person to person when the patient coughs and sneezes.

The results of the study of the virus are planned to be published in the American journal Science, but it faces an unprecedented major barrier from NSABB.

The US government warned that the publication of research details could kill millions if it was used as a biological warfare weapon.

Discovered for the first time in Hong Kong in 1997, the H5N1 virus still attacks poultry in many countries, mostly in Asia, but so far humans have been restricted to this virus. Since 2003, nearly 700 people around the world have been infected with the virus and half of them have died.