In a letter published in Science and Nature, the teams call for an "international forum" to debate the risks and value of the studies.
US authorities last month asked the authors of the research to redact key details in forthcoming publications.
A government advisory panel suggested the data could be used by terrorists.
Biosecurity experts fear an altered, more contagious form of the virus could spark a pandemic deadlier than the 1918-19 Spanish flu outbreak that killed up to 40 million people.
The strain the researchers created in the lab transmitted easily among ferrets, which suggests that it would behave similarly in humans. Although bird flu typically does not circulate well in people, it is deadly: since the first human cases were documented in Hong Kong in 1997, H5N1 has killed nearly 60% of the 582 humans it has infected.
Fouchier and Kawaoke had planned to publish their new findings in the journals Science and Nature — at least until the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), which oversees such research, got involved, asking the researchers and the journal editors to suppress the data and refrain from publishing details of how the killer version of H5N1 was made. Passionate debate ensued. The researchers resisted NSABB’s bidding, and many in the scientific community supported them, saying that the scientific value of their work justified uncensored publication. Only by fully understanding how H5N1 and other strains like it work, many scientists say, can we hope to learn how to create more effective treatments and vaccines against them.
Still, Fouchier, Kawaoke and their supporters appreciate that their findings don’t occur in a vacuum, and 39 scientists have now signed a letter agreeing to suspend all studies on highly virulent H5N1 until scientific, political and ethics leaders are able to discuss the implications of these types of studies.
US authorities last month asked the authors of the research to redact key details in forthcoming publications.
A government advisory panel suggested the data could be used by terrorists.
Biosecurity experts fear an altered, more contagious form of the virus could spark a pandemic deadlier than the 1918-19 Spanish flu outbreak that killed up to 40 million people.
The strain the researchers created in the lab transmitted easily among ferrets, which suggests that it would behave similarly in humans. Although bird flu typically does not circulate well in people, it is deadly: since the first human cases were documented in Hong Kong in 1997, H5N1 has killed nearly 60% of the 582 humans it has infected.
Fouchier and Kawaoke had planned to publish their new findings in the journals Science and Nature — at least until the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), which oversees such research, got involved, asking the researchers and the journal editors to suppress the data and refrain from publishing details of how the killer version of H5N1 was made. Passionate debate ensued. The researchers resisted NSABB’s bidding, and many in the scientific community supported them, saying that the scientific value of their work justified uncensored publication. Only by fully understanding how H5N1 and other strains like it work, many scientists say, can we hope to learn how to create more effective treatments and vaccines against them.
Still, Fouchier, Kawaoke and their supporters appreciate that their findings don’t occur in a vacuum, and 39 scientists have now signed a letter agreeing to suspend all studies on highly virulent H5N1 until scientific, political and ethics leaders are able to discuss the implications of these types of studies.
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