On Friday, the World Health Organization warned scientists who have been involved in engineering a highly pathogenic form of the deadly bird flu virus.
The WHO said it was “deeply concerned about the potential negative consequences” of work by two leading flu research teams who said they found ways to make the H5N1 strain into an easily transmissible form.
The work was stiffened by U.S. security advisers who wanted the details of how to make the deadly virus unpublished.
The U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity asked the two scientific journals to publish the results without giving away the formula. Both the journals and the scientists were reluctant to do so.
The WHO said in its first comment on the controversy: “While it is clear that conducting research to gain such knowledge must continue, it is also clear that certain research, and especially that which can generate more dangerous forms of the virus….has risks.”
The bird flu strain H5N1 is extremely deadly and has the potential to cause a pandemic. The virus was first detected in 1997, and about 600 people have contracted it since then. About 60 percent of those who contract the virus die from it.
Flu researchers were trying to determine which mutations would give H5N1 the ability to spread easily from one person to another, while at the same time maintaining its deadly properties.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health funded two research teams to carry out research into how the virus could become more transmissible in humans.
The WHO said this research should be done “only after all important public health risks and benefits have been identified” and “it is certain that the necessary protections to minimize the potential for negative consequences are in place.”
The WHO said it was vital that new rules on sharing the viruses and the scientific how-to-manual on producing the H5N1 were enforced.
A new Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework was agreed and adopted by all WHO member states in May 2011 to set rules for sharing flu viruses that have pandemic potential.
“WHO considers it critically important that scientists who undertake research with influenza viruses with pandemic potential samples fully abide by the new requirements,” the U.N. agency said in its statement.
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