Thread by @VintageKidsNL

Scientists to make mutant forms of new bird flu to assess risk reut.rs/15Md94V LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists are to create mutant forms of the H7N9 bird flu virus that has emerged in China so they can gauge the risk of it becoming a lethal human pandemic. 2013 👇

The genetic modification work will to result in highly transmissible and deadly forms of H7N9 being made in several high security laboratories around the world, but it is vital to prepare for the threat, the scientists say.

The new bird flu virus, which was unknown in humans until February, has already infected at least 133 people in China and Taiwan, killing 43 of them, according to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) data.

Announcing plans to start the controversial experiments, leading virologists Ron Fouchier and Yoshihiro Kawaoka said H7N9’s pandemic risk would rise “exponentially” if it gained the ability to spread easily among people. @AlleBurgers

“It’s clear this H7N9 virus has some hallmarks of pandemic viruses, and it’s also clear it is still missing at least one or two of the hallmarks we’ve seen in the pandemic viruses of the last century,” Fouchier told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“So the most logical step forward is to put in those (missing) mutations first.”

By finding the mutations needed, researchers and health authorities can better assess how likely it is that a new virus could become dangerous and if so, how soon they should begin developing drugs, vaccines and other scientific defenses.

BIOTERRORISM FEARS
When Fouchier, of the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and Kawaoka, at the University of Wisconsin in the United States, announced in late 2011 they had found how to make H5N1 into a form that could spread between mammals, the

the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) was so alarmed that it took the unprecedented step of trying to censor publication of the studies.

The NSABB said it feared details could fall into the wrong hands and be used for bioterrorism. A year-long moratorium on such research followed while the #WHO, U.S. security advisers and international flu researchers sought ways to ensure the highest safety controls.

The laboratory Fouchier will be working in is known as a BSL3 Enhanced lab (Bio-Safety Level 3), the highest level of biosecurity that can be achieved in academic research.

(Seek the differences with #school)

Fouchier conceded that GOF research has been “under fire” recently. “One of the accusations against the flu community was that we were not transparent enough about what experiments were being done, and why and how they were being done,” he said.

Yet as winter approaches in China, many experts believe H7N9 could re-emerge, meaning the threat of a pandemic looms if it mutates to become easily transmissible between people.

The 1st scientific analysis of probable human-to-human transmission of H7N9 raised concern about its pandemic potential and prompted scientists James Rudge and Richard Coker of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to warn threat posed by H7N9 has by no means passed

Fouchier and colleagues said they hope to unravel the molecular processes behind H7N9 by manipulating its genetic material to increase virulence or induce drug resistance.