Yearlong moratorium on H5N1 research soon lifted, new rules implemented, Science reports

Jan 7 2013

"U.S. government officials say they expect to put the finishing touches this month on new rules designed to help funding agencies identify and regulate especially problematic H5N1 studies before they begin," which would allow influenza researchers "to lift a year-old, self-imposed moratorium on certain kinds of potentially dangerous experiments," Science reports. "The two developments would essentially end a long and bruising controversy over the risks and benefits of H5N1 research," the magazine notes, adding the debate was initiated by two research teams that lab-engineered H5N1 strains to be transmissible among mammals. "The issue has been especially sensitive for the U.S. government, because its National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded the two studies and is one of the world's biggest funders of H5N1 research," Science writes. The magazine discusses the moratorium's impact on research worldwide and summarizes differing views about its effects (Malakoff, 1/4).