Tag: dual-use

Scientists Withhold Details on New Botulinum Toxin

by Siddha Hover, posted in News

Scientists have discovered a new form of botulinum toxin, but have taken the unusual measure of withholding key details of the discovery, citing concerns over bioterrorism. What does everyone think? We’d love to hear your comments.

NPR – “That’s because botulinum toxin is one of the most poisonous substances known. It causes botulism, and the newly identified form of it can’t be neutralized by any available treatment. The researchers published two reports describing their work online in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. The information in those reports is deliberately incomplete, to prevent anyone from using it as the recipe for a potent new bioweapon. ‘This is not the usual process for publishing manuscripts. We thought in this case an exception was appropriate,’ says David Hooper, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital who serves as one of the editors of the journal. Normally, the journal would require that the scientists disclose the genetic sequences needed to make the toxin. In this case, however, the researchers didn’t want to do that because of the security risk.”

Read more here and then come back and tell us what you think!

New developments in legal battle over H5N1 research

by Siddha Hover, posted in News

Ron Fouchier, the virologist at the center of the last year’s controversial gain-of-function H5N1 research, is back in the media following the ruling on his research in Dutch courts this week. The ruling surrounded the legality of the Dutch government’s decision to request Fouchier to first obtain an export licenses before sending his H5N1 research out to the magazine Science. The government did so after classifying Fouchier’s work as dual-use research of concern, the dissemination of which could be perceived as potential proliferation. This week’s ruling not only supported the government’s requirement of an export license, but extended the requirement to all future work on H5N1 transmission. Needless to say, Fouchier is not pleased. He’s accused the Dutch government of disadvantaging Dutch scientists and mitigating their academic freedom.

Read more at Science.

(Image: Selbe B./Flickr)

The Pandora Report 7.19.13

by Siddha Hover, posted in News, Pandora Report

Highlights this week include MERS in the UAE, H5N1 and dual-use research, giant Pandoravirus, implications of giant Pandoravirus, and pandemics and national security. Happy Friday!

United Arab Emirates identifies 4 new cases of SARS-like respiratory virus

The Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus, first appearing in Saudi Araia has spread to the neighboring United Arab Emirates, with four new cases identified in Abu Dhabi. It is thought that one patient contracted the virus earlier subsequently infected these four new cases.

Washington Post –  “The new cases also could offer investigators fresh leads on the transmission of the virus, which has claimed more than 40 lives since September. Most of the deaths have been in Saudi Arabia…The virus is related to SARS, which killed some 800 people in a global outbreak in 2003. It belongs to a family of viruses that most often cause the common cold.”

H5N1: A Case Study for Dual-Use Research

The Council on Foreign Relations has a new working paper out, by Dr. Gigi Kwik Gronvall, examining the furious debate around gain-of-function, potentially dual-use H5N1 research.

CFR – “Biological research is inherently dual-use, in that a great deal of the scientific knowledge, materials, and techniques required for legitimate research could also be used for harm. The potential for a bioterrorist to misuse legitimate research is particularly acute for scientific studies of contagious pathogens. In order to find out how pathogens function—how they are able to get around the human body’s immunological defenses, replicate in great numbers, and go on to infect other people in a continuous chain of infection—scientists necessarily learn what conditions make pathogens more deadly or difficult to treat. This research is widely shared. But the fear that this openness could be exploited has sparked concerns about specific scientific publications, prompting media storms and even congressional disapproval, as in the 2002 case when poliovirus was synthesized from scratch in a laboratory.”

World’s Biggest Virus May Have Ancient Roots

Breaking news everyone, the world’s largest virus has the world’s coolest name – the Pandoravirus. However, unless you live primarily underwater, it shouldn’t pose a big threat to you. The virus is, however, raising big questions about the origins of viruses – the Pandoravirus‘ are thought to originate in a prehistoric cell type now extinct. For an interesting examination of what larger viruses may mean for virology, check out the New York Times piece “Changing View on Viruses: Not So Small After All“.

NPR – ” ‘We believe that those new Pandoraviruses have emerged from a new ancestral cellular type that no longer exists,’ [discoverer, Jean-Michel Claverie] says. That life could have even come from another planet, like Mars. ‘At this point we cannot actually disprove or disregard this type of extreme scenario,’ he says. But how did this odd cellular form turn into a virus? Abergel says it may have evolved as a survival strategy as modern cells took over. ‘On Earth it was winners and it was losers, and the losers could have escaped death by going through parasitism and then infect the winner,’ she says.”

National Security and Pandemics

An interesting argument for the correlation between national security and pandemics. Whether international health events should be classified as issues of national security is a very interesting and nuanced question, and this piece presents one side (“yes, they should”) well.

UN Chronicle – “”Pandemics are for the most part disease outbreaks that become widespread as a result of the spread of human-to-human infection. Beyond the debilitating, sometimes fatal, consequences for those directly affected, pandemics have a range of negative social, economic and political consequences. These tend to be greater where the pandemic is a novel pathogen, has a high mortality and/or hospitalization rate and is easily spread. According to Lee Jong-wook, former Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), pandemics do not respect international borders.2 Therefore, they have the potential to weaken many societies, political systems and economies simultaneously.”

(image courtesy of Jeff Black)

The Pandora Report 7.12.13

by Siddha Hover, posted in Pandora Report

Highlights: the Science, Safety, and Security newsletter, wild polio in Israel, proliferation concerns in Syria, H7N9 – the pandemic?, and H1N1 in Chile. Happy Friday!

S3 Newsletter June 2013

For those of you who may have missed it, the Science, Safety, and Security Quarterly June newsletter is out, and features articles on dual use research of concern, HHS’ recent international participation in BWC activities, and the International Biological Threat Reduction program. It’s an excellent resource for anyone working in fields related to biodefense, biosecurity, or non-proliferation.

WHO Sends Mission to Israel Following Detection of Wild Poliovirus in Sewage

The World Health Organization last week completed a five-day mission in Israel, following detection of wild polio virus in the sewage of the country’s Southern District. Despite detection of the virus, no new polio cases have emerged. In response to the virus’ detection, Israel is starting a supplemental oral vaccination campaign, in addition to existing vaccination matters.  This isn’t an overreaction. For those of you who may not know, polio eradication remains a top priority of the international health community, with the eradication efforts rendering the virus’ endemic in just 3 countries. Therefore any time it pops up naturally, people get understandably nervous.

WHO – “Israel has systematically conducted environmental sampling for many years, and the poliovirus was detected thanks to this vigilance. Public health authorities continue to monitor the situation carefully, and measures have been taken to increase surveillance and reporting for possible human cases, regardless of age. The aim of the supplementary immunization campaign is to protect any children in the country who may have missed routine vaccinations for any reason. In southern areas, adults are also being assessed and those thought to be susceptible are being immunized.”

Proliferation concerns mount in Syria

As the civil war in Syria continues, the United Kingdom is considering supplying the rebels with protective equipment against  biological and chemical agents. UK intelligence reports have listed ricin, VX, mustard gas, and sarin as all possible chemical and biological agents in Assad’s armory. Concerns over proliferation of the agents and weapons to terrorist organizations were fueled by last month’s report that al Qaeda had attempted to access chemical weapons stockpiles in support of the Syrian rebels. Does anyone else feel like that “red line” is looking pretty darn thin?

Irish Times – “The danger was underlined by MI6 chief Sir John Sawers who told the committee there was the risk of ‘a highly worrying proliferation around the time of the regime fall’. The committee said: ‘There has to be a significant risk that some of the country’s chemical weapons stockpile could fall into the hands of those with links to terrorism, in Syria or elsewhere in the region – if this happens, the consequences could be catastrophic.’ British prime minister David Cameron disclosed last month that al-Qaeda-linked elements fighting the regime had already attempted to acquire chemical weapons for probable use in Syria.”

Scientists: H7N9 Avian Flu Has Pandemic Potential

Just when you thought it was gone! In a piece published in Nature on Wednesday,  an international team of scientists determined that H7N9 could be just a couple amino acid mutations away from effective person-to-person transmission pandemic potential. The two teams, from  the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Tokyo, determined that H7N9 replicates effectively in several mammamlian hosts with immune systems similar to humans, among them monkeys and ferrets. The good news? Most of the strains tested are susceptible to standard antivirals.

Rianovosti – “They also established that approximately one third of ferrets became infected by droplet spread.’H7N9 viruses combine several features of pandemic influenza viruses, that is their ability to bind to and replicate in human cells and the ability to transmit via respiratory droplets,’ [flu expert Yoshihiro Kawaoka] said. These two features are necessary, although not sufficient, to cause a pandemic.’ In monkeys, the virus could efficiently infect cells in both the upper and lower respiratory tract. Conventional human flu viruses are typically restricted to the upper airway of infected nonhuman primates.”

Chile confirms 33 deaths from H1N1

The Chilean health ministry confirmed Wednesday that of the 33 H1N1 deaths this year, nearly half had occurred in the last few weeks. The South American nation is currently experiencing a small  outbreak, with a large and effective vaccination campaign halting the virus’ spread.

APA – “‘Today it appears to be under control, I say this with extreme caution. In epidemiologic week number 27, we do not have serious new cases,’  [Health Minister] Manalich said at a press conference. ‘We just have three patients with the flu in the intensive care unit of the hospital of the town of Iquique,’ said Manalich, adding ‘walk-in consultations due to the flu have fallen 25 percent from what we had before.'”

(image courtesy of the Polio Eradication Initiative)