WHO Sets [date For Consultation On H5N1 Virus Research]

2023 Author: Abraham Higgins | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-30 04:59

WHO sets [date for consultation on H5N1 virus research]

The first working meeting on the publication of the results of studies of highly pathogenic strains of the avian influenza virus will be held under the auspices of WHO on February 16-17 in Geneva. It will be attended by people directly involved in scientific experiments with the H5N1 virus, as well as experts familiar with their results. Previously, two articles on this topic were withdrawn from the press.

The first working meeting to discuss the risks and benefits of laboratory research associated with the avian influenza virus, as well as the possibility of publicly publishing the details of the experiments, will be held in Geneva on February 16-17, according to the World Health Organization.

The WHO report notes that this preliminary consultation will bring together researchers involved in experiments with the H5N1 virus, as well as people familiar with their results. The results were obtained last year but were not published because the American Biosafety Board obtained censorship of scientific articles submitted for publication by research authors.

A request to hold an international forum devoted, in particular, to the problem of publishing the results of studies of viruses obtained by experiment, recently approached the WHO by scientists, under whose leadership in two laboratories - in the Netherlands and in the USA - mutant strains of the avian influenza virus were created.

Simultaneously with the appeal to the WHO, Ron Fouchier from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam and Yoshihiro Kawaoka from the American University of Wisconsin-Madison, who created a highly infectious 60-day strain based on the H5N1 virus, reported research, the results of which currently cannot be available to the professional community.

Their letter was published in January this year in the journals Science and Nature. The reason was the call of the American Biosafety Council for the adoption by scientists of a voluntary moratorium on the publication of research details that are devoted to highly pathogenic strains of influenza viruses. The Council's experts are concerned that scientific information may become the property of terrorists.

As noted by the WHO, the range of issues scheduled for discussion at the February meeting is limited, and the date of the next consultation has not yet been determined.