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http://www.nature.com/news/tensions-linger-over-discovery-of-coronavirus-1.12108
Tensions linger over discovery of coronavirus
A continuing row pits researchers against authorities in Saudi Arabia, where deadly pathogen was first isolated.
Declan Butler 14 January 2013
When microbiologist Ali Mohamed Zaki mailed out a sample of a deadly virus he had found in Saudi Arabia to a leading virologist, he thought he was helping to alert the world to a potential public-health threat. But Saudi authorities are unhappy that, although the virus was first isolated in their country, Zaki?s action has resulted in handing sovereign and intellectual-property rights on the first diagnostic tests or treatments over to an institute in the Netherlands.
As the World Health Organization convenes researchers and public health officials to a meeting in Geneva today to take stock of the novel virus, which has quickly sparked international concern, the dispute over its discovery continues. The row is highlighting potential tensions between scientists? pursuit of research and the responsibility they have to flag up threats to national authorities. It also underscores the lack of clear international rules for what rights and credit should be assigned to countries where pathogens are first isolated.
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http://www.nature.com/news/tensions-linger-over-discovery-of-coronavirus-1.12108
Tensions linger over discovery of coronavirus
A continuing row pits researchers against authorities in Saudi Arabia, where deadly pathogen was first isolated.
Declan Butler 14 January 2013
When microbiologist Ali Mohamed Zaki mailed out a sample of a deadly virus he had found in Saudi Arabia to a leading virologist, he thought he was helping to alert the world to a potential public-health threat. But Saudi authorities are unhappy that, although the virus was first isolated in their country, Zaki?s action has resulted in handing sovereign and intellectual-property rights on the first diagnostic tests or treatments over to an institute in the Netherlands.
As the World Health Organization convenes researchers and public health officials to a meeting in Geneva today to take stock of the novel virus, which has quickly sparked international concern, the dispute over its discovery continues. The row is highlighting potential tensions between scientists? pursuit of research and the responsibility they have to flag up threats to national authorities. It also underscores the lack of clear international rules for what rights and credit should be assigned to countries where pathogens are first isolated.
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