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By Category: International

H5N1: Bungling dual-use governance

(Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) Recent months have seen an increasingly confusing debate about new research on the adaptability and transmissibility of avian influenza A/H5N1, which was undertaken by groups in the Netherlands and the United States. Both studies were funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), and research results were sent for Read More »

March 29, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Research
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Biosecurity panel reconvenes to reexamine controversial bird flu studies

(Winnipeg Free Press) A bid from some quarters in the U.S. to resolve the ongoing controversy over two unpublished bird flu studies will begin to play out over the next two days as government biosecurity advisers reconvene to reconsider the issue. The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity will meet Thursday and Friday in Washington, Read More »

March 29, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, International, and Research
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Why all our bird flu research should be published

(The Guardian) To me, the debate about the H5N1 mutations has become a debate about the role of science in society. Two questions should be addressed here: should this type of research be conducted at all; and if so, should all data generated by this research be published?

March 29, 2012
| Filed under Europe, North America, International, and Research
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H5N1 surveillance: Shift expertise to where it matters

(Nature.com) Tools and training for responding to diseases such as avian flu must relocate to countries where infections are most likely to emerge, says Jeremy Farrar. Every day on my way to the hospital, I pass streets lined with poultry. The birds disappeared a few years ago, but have gradually returned. This would be of Read More »

March 29, 2012
| Filed under Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, Agriculture, Countermeasures, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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H5N1: How to track a flu virus

(Nature.com) Four experts pinpoint ways to improve monitoring of H5N1 avian influenza in the field. The H5N1 influenza outbreak in Asia is unprecedented: never before has a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus prevailed for so long, spread to so many countries or generated so many genetic variants. Why? Partly because of its persistence in …