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Bird flu, pig flu, now bat flu? Human risk unclear
For the first time, scientists have found evidence of flu in bats, reporting a never-before-seen virus whose risk to humans is unclear.
The surprising discovery of genetic fragments of a flu virus is the first well-documented report of it in the winged mammals. So far, scientists haven’t been able to grow it, and it’s not clear if – or how well – it spreads.
Flu bugs are common in humans, birds and pigs and have even been seen in dogs, horses, seals and whales, among others. About five years ago, Russian virologists claimed finding flu in bats, but they never offered evidence.
“Most people are fairly convinced we had already discovered flu in all the possible” animals, said Ruben Donis, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientist who co-authored the new study.
Scientists suspect that some bats caught flu centuries ago and that the virus mutated within the bat population into this new variety. Scientists haven’t even been able to grow the new virus in chicken eggs or in human cell culture, as they do with more conventional flu strains.
US government urges scientists to censor findings on new strain of bird flu
Scientists warn that redacting information from new research on H5N1 virus could hinder the discovery of a vaccine
Moves by the US government to restrict the publication of papers describing potentially dangerous new strains of bird flu could do more harm than good by hampering progress towards a vaccine, scientists warn.
The US biosecurity watchdog has asked two leading scientific journals, Science and Nature, to remove sensitive details from the papers amid fears the research might fall into the hands of bioterrorists.
But scientists involved in the research discussed their experiments at public conferences earlier this year, leading some experts to doubt whether redacting the papers will have much effect.
“There is a cause for concern, but to restrict publication now is shutting the stable doors after the horse has bolted,” said John Wood, the former chief virologist at the UK’s National Institute for Biological Standards and Control. “It will only impede progress.”
The US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) contacted editors at the journals after reviewing two papers submitted by Ron Fouchier at Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, and Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
The papers described experiments in which natural strains of H5N1 bird flu, which do not spread easily from human to human, were mutated to make them more transmissible.
Though bird flu outbreaks have killed many of those infected, most people who contracted the virus caught it directly from birds. Since the virus became known, scientists have been racing to work out how it could mutate in the wild into a more transmissible strain that would spread quickly from person to person.
Alarm as Dutch lab creates highly contagious killer flu
Fear of terrorism as university prepares to publish key details
A deadly strain of bird flu with the potential to infect and kill millions of people has been created in a laboratory by European scientists – who now want to publish full details of how they did it.
The discovery has prompted fears within the US Government that the knowledge will fall into the hands of terrorists wanting to use it as a bio-weapon of mass destruction.
Some scientists are questioning whether the research should ever have been undertaken in a university laboratory, instead of at a military facility.
The US Government is now taking advice on whether the information is too dangerous to be published.
To see the graphic: The last outbreak – A deadly virus even before the latest twist
“The fear is that if you create something this deadly and it goes into a global pandemic, the mortality and cost to the world could be massive,” a senior scientific adviser to the US Government told The Independent, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The worst-case scenario here is worse than anything you can imagine.”
For the first time the researchers have been able to mutate the H5N1 strain… Continue reading
Bird Flu Research Rattles Bioterrorism Field
H5N1 avian flu viruses (seen in gold) grow inside canine kidney cells (seen in green).
Scientists and security specialists are in the midst of a fierce debate over recent experiments on a strain of bird flu virus that made it more contagious.
The big question: Should the results be made public?
Critics say doing so could potentially reveal how to make powerful new bioweapons.
The H5N1 virus has been circulating among birds and other animals in recent years. It’s also infected about 500 people. More than half died. But this dangerous virus has not caused widespread human disease because, so far, sick people haven’t been very contagious.
If the virus evolves to spread as easily between people as seasonal flu, however, it could cause a devastating global pandemic. So in an attempt to stay ahead of H5N1, scientists have been tweaking its genes in the lab to learn more about how this virus works, and what it is capable of.
In September, one scientist made a stunning announcement. At a flu conference held in Malta, he said he’d done a lab experiment that resulted in bird flu virus becoming highly contagious between ferrets — the animal model used to study human flu infection. It seemed that just five mutations did the trick.
News of the results raised red flags for Dr. Thomas Inglesby, a bioterrorism expert and director of the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
“It’s just a bad idea for scientists to turn a lethal virus into a lethal and highly contagious virus. And it’s a second bad idea for them to publish how they did it so others can copy it,” says Inglesby.
No science journal has published the information yet. And Inglesby hopes none of them do.
Scientists mutate bird flu to make it MORE contagious – but critics claim the ‘bioweapon’ must be kept secret
- Just five tweaks to H5N1 makes it more contagious
- Contagious version of bird flu could cause pandemic
- Scientists divide over whether findings can be released
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.
Antibiotic-resistant infections spread through Europe
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Experts blame overuse of medicines for huge rise in bacteria that are almost impossible to treat
The world is being driven towards the “unthinkable scenario of untreatable infections”, experts are warning, because of the growth of superbugs resistant to all antibiotics and the dwindling interest in developing new drugs to combat them.
Reports are increasing across Europe of patients with infections that are nearly impossible to treat. The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) said yesterday that in some countries up to 50 per cent of cases of blood poisoning caused by one bug – K. pneumoniae, a common cause of urinary and respiratory conditions – were resistant to carbapenems, the most powerful class of antibiotics.
Across Europe, the percentage of carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae has doubled from 7 per cent to 15 per cent. The ECDC said it is “particularly worrying” because carbapenems are the last-line antibiotics for treatment of multi-drug-resistant infections.
Marc Sprenger, the director, said: “The situation is critical. We need to declare a war against these bacteria.”
In 2009, carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae was established only in Greece, but by 2010, it had extended to Italy, Austria, Cyprus and Hungary. The bacterium is… Continue reading
