Nature: H5N1: Flu transmission work is urgent, by Kawaoka

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Yoshihiro Kawaoka1

Nature
(2012)
doi:10.1038/nature10884

Published online
25 January 2012




Yoshihiro Kawaoka explains that research on transmissible avian flu viruses needs to continue if pandemics are to be prevented.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature10884.html

 

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Re: Nature: H5N1: Flu transmission work is urgent, by Kawaoka

Bird flu researcher reveals details of his findings

TORONTO ? A scientist at the centre of a raging controversy over bird flu transmission studies has broken his silence, in the process revealing information about his study that has not been made public previously.

In a commentary in the journal Nature, flu virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka argued the work he and other high level influenza scientists do to try to puzzle out why some flu viruses spread in humans while others don't is too important to be shelved.

"Our work remains urgent -- we cannot give it up," wrote Kawaoka, who up until now has made no comment on the controversy that is pitting flu scientists against the community of biosecurity experts, some of whom insist no further transmission studies on the dangerous H5N1 flu virus should be undertaken.

In his commentary, Kawaoka revealed that his laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison made a hybrid virus, fusing the hemagglutinin protein (the H in a flu virus's name) from H5N1 onto the human H1N1 virus that caused the 2009 pandemic.

Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20120125/bird-flu-research-controversy-120125/#ixzz1kV3HWV4L