January 23, 2013

expert reaction to lifting of moratorium on H5N1 transmission

A letter published jointly in  the journals Nature and Science by influenza scientists announced their intention to resume research into H5N1 avian influenza virus transmission after a year-long self imposed moratorium to allow for debate on the safest way to proceed.

Dr John McCauley, Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Influenza at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research, said:

“A WHO meeting was held in February to discuss this issue with the authors of the manuscripts, the head of NIAID (Dr Tony Fauci), the editors/deputy editors of the journals, the head of the committee that made the assessment for the US Government and the Directors of the WHO Collaborating Centres on Influenza. This meeting recognised the importance of the work that was being carried out.

“At the meeting, it was felt that the research would allow us to be in a position to make far better risk assessments of the zoonotic and pandemic threat posed by any H5N1 virus. Having a restricted circulation of research material was also discussed, but it was not deemed to be feasible. The group also thought that publication of conclusions rather than the complete work was not useful or helpful.

“The recommendation from the meeting, in a statement from Dr. Keiji Fakuda, was published on the WHO website. Here the moratorium was recommended to be extended whilst there was some education about the biological and other security measures that were used to contain the virus and about the explanation of the benefits of the research.

“The laboratories have expanded on their containment and security system used in the experiments and I think the value of the results has been recognised. Therefore, the WHO group’s recommendations were satisfied.”

Prof Wendy Barclay, Chair in Influenza Virology, Imperial College London, said:

“The moratorium on research with H5N1 highly pathogenic influenza viruses leading to increased transmissibility in mammals was put in place last year by an international collection of influenza virologists. The stimulus for this voluntary pause in research in one specific area was the revelation that two labs had actually generated recombinant viruses with increased transmissibility. Several other labs along with these two had been working in this area for some years, publishing and presenting their work openly, but only when efforts yielded up a positive result did anyone really notice. Then there was a knee jerk response from certain quarters previously naive of this approach, expressing horror that scientists were brewing up deadly diseases. It became clear that the public needed reassurance and justification about these experiments.

“The original moratorium was supposed to last 60 days and during that time it was hoped that a wide body of people would get together to debate the merits of the work and also to ensure that such work, if conducted, would be done under the most appropriate containment. After all, inadvertent release of these genetically manipulated viruses might cause a devastating human outbreak. Inevitably, 60 days proved too short a time to debate this issue fully enough and now a whole year has passed. During that time, many meetings have been held both open and closed, many opinions have been expressed in closed halls but also in the public domain (including live webcasts and on line debates) and the safety measures for this type of work have been clarified. There is probably not a scientific issue in recent times that has not been so widely thrown out for public consultation as this one.

“Now the scientists suggest it is time to move on, go back to the very safe bench they were working at, taking on board the comments of the past year which will undoubtedly have focused their minds on the key questions they hope now to address. H5N1 has not stood still during this year, but thankfully it has also not made any significant evolutionary jumps either. Evidence suggests the virus continues to drift antigenically especially in places like Egypt, but also that clinical management of patients caught early in the infection is improving their chances of survival. The information learned from the two publications that finally made it into Nature and Science last year has been processed by the influenza community and has been hugely informative, not only for understanding the risks from H5N1 but also for illuminating how other subtypes of flu might species jump and even for assessing the zoonotic risks from other pathogens. The lifting of the moratorium will undoubtedly lead to more scientific revelations that will have direct consequence for human and animal health.”

Prof Wendy Barclay is a signatory on the letter.

‘Transmission studies resume for avian flu’ a signed letter with 40 signatories,  published in Nature and Science on Wednesday 23rd January.