Latest Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 Stories

Scientists have engineered a new strain of H5N1 (commonly known as bird flu) to be readily transmitted between humans. Two perspectives being published early online in Annals of Internal Medicine (www.annals.org), the flagship journal of the American College of Physicians, raise concerns about if and how this research should be continued, and how the data should be shared for the benefit of public health. The currently circulating H5N1 virus has an extremely high case-fatality rate,...

A Georgetown University Medical Center professor says the voluntary action taken by two research teams to temporarily halt work involving the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 is “laudable.” In the researchers’ statement, published today by Science and Nature, the authors stated that they “recognize that we and the rest of the scientific community need to clearly explain the benefits of this important research and the measures taken to minimize its possible risks.” The...

The scientists behind a pair of controversial research projects designed to make a deadly strain of bird flu more contagious have agreed to halt their work for 60 days in order to allow experts to determine whether or not the research could lead to a global pandemic or a possible bioterrorism threat. A letter announcing the decision, authored by the three scientists behind the two studies -- Ron Fouchier, Adolfo García-Sastre, and Yoshihiro Kawaoka -- and three dozen other top influenza...

2 Georgetown professors explore a process needed to avoid the current dilemma faced by 2 scientific journals recently asked by the US government to redact parts of scientific publications deemed to be a biosecurity threat The U.S. government's request that the journals Science and Nature withhold scientific information related to the genetically modified H5N1 virus because of biosecurity concerns does not violate the First Amendment, say two Georgetown University professors. They caution,...

Scientists say the weather pattern La Nina could increase the risk of flu pandemics by altering flight paths of migratory birds. The scientists found that La Nina events preceded the last four worldwide flu pandemics in 1918, 1957, 1968 and 2009. A team from Columbia University and Harvard School of Public Health said La Nina is known to alter the migratory patterns of birds, which are thought to be a primary reservoir of human influenza. The scientists believe that altered migration...

A Chinese man who died from bird flu over the weekend may have contracted the disease by running through a wetland park that had been filled with migratory birds, that nation's medical officials told reporters on Sunday. The victim, a 39-year-old bus driver identified only by his family name, Chen, died on Saturday -- one week after he was admitted to a hospital in the city of Shenzhen with pneumonia, Peter Simpson of the Telegraph reported on Sunday. The cause of death was listed as...

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....

The U.S. government paid scientists to find out how the bird flu virus might mutate to become a bigger threat to people, but federal officials decided this information should be kept from the public. Federal officials asked the scientists on Tuesday to keep their findings away from being publicized in fear of the wrong people finding out the formula. The two labs in the study found that it appears easier than scientists believed for the H5N1 bird flu to evolve in a way that allows it to...

BLUE BELL, Pa., Nov. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE AMEX: INO), which is advancing synthetic vaccines to fight cancers and infectious diseases, announced today that a single intradermal (ID) electroporation boost of its SynCon® avian influenza vaccine generated HAI titers against six different, unmatched strains of H5N1 - a distinct new clinical achievement on the global research community's path to develop universal influenza vaccines. This single synthetic...

LONDON, Nov. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Animals and humans no longer need to be "sitting ducks," oblivious to and unprepared for emergent infectious disease outbreaks. Rather than being caught off-guard by mass influenza outbreaks, UK-based biotech firm BioRadar Ltd. can successfully analyze the concentration and structure of the genomic Replikins in 'scout' viruses isolated from initial cases up to one year or longer, which provides advance warning of, and the ability to respond to the...