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Madison to Get Flu Institute: Research Facility Could Open in 2007

Posted on: Wednesday, 15 March 2006, 03:03 CST

By Kawanza Newson and Susanne Rust, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Mar. 15--Madison will soon be home to a $9 million research institute dedicated to influenza viruses such as the one that causes avian flu, which public health officials fear could spark a global pandemic that would kill millions.

Gov. Jim Doyle plans to officially announce today that the Institute for Influenza Viral Research will be built in the University Research Park, on the far west side of Madison.

He is expected to make the announcement during a summit in Madison on pandemic flu preparedness. The meeting will include presentations Alex Azar II, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

According to a source familiar with the draft of the announcement, the 20,000-square-foot institute will have as many as 28 employees. Construction should be completed the fall of 2007. It's partially funded the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a world-renowned flu researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is expected to play a pivotal role in the new institute. He was in Japan on Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.

Dan Leistikow, a spokesman for Doyle's office, would not confirm the plan but said: "The governor has worked very hard to keep Yoshihiro Kawaoka and his team in Wisconsin because it's absolutely vital for the state to continue to be a biotechnology leader. He's very supportive of any efforts to accomplish that."

In October, Kawaoka was among a group of international researchers who reported the discovery of a Vietnamese girl with a strain of the H5N1 avian flu virus that is resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu. The discovery raised concern about sole reliance on Tamiflu, which is being stockpiled globally to fight a possible flu pandemic.

The H5N1 virus is making a slow and steady spread throughout Europe and Asia. It has infected about 180 people since 2003 and killed at least half them. It also has resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of birds.

Most human cases have been linked to contact with sick birds, though the World Health Organization and others have warned that the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among humans, possibly triggering a global pandemic.

Scientists have said that it is impossible to predict when the virus might mutate into a form that spreads easily among people. But they have warned repeatedly that as more birds carry the virus and spread it to other species, especially pigs, it becomes more likely that the virus will adapt to people.

Scientists are concerned that if that happened, it would lead to a pandemic similar to that of 1918, when an estimated 40 million to 50 million people died worldwide. In Milwaukee, 18,000 got the flu and 1,100 people died.

The prospect of a viral research center is exciting news to Madison officials.

"We sometimes, as Americans, ignore the fact that we're not invincible, and then at the 11th hour become concerned about how to protect ourselves," said Madison Common Council President Pro Tem Santiago Rosas. "But this is preventive medicine. It's best that we have these kind of precautions in place."

Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, which promotes science and technology development, said that such research is growing in the state.

"In several places across the state, we have researchers working on animal-based diseases that can move to humans, such as SARS, West Nile Virus, monkeypox and avian flu," Still said.

Kathleen Gallagher of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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