The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a stern warning at the end of December 2011 to scientists who have engineered a highly pathogenic form of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, saying that their work carries significant risks and must be tightly controlled. WHO reported that it is “deeply concerned about the potential negative consequences” of work by two leading flu research teams who had said earlier in the month that they found ways to make H5N1 into an easily transmissable form capable of causing lethal human pandemics. In its first comment on the controversy, the WHO said: “While it is clear that conducting research to gain such knowledge must continue, it is also clear that certain research, and especially that which can generate more dangerous forms of the virus…has risks.” H5N1 bird flu is extremely deadly in people who are directly exposed to it from infected birds but so far it has not yet naturally mutated into a form that can pass easily from person to person. Scientists fear that this kind of mutation is likely to happen at some point and will constitute a major health threat if it does.
(Ambien)
