This article is called How Hard Would It Be for Avian Flu to Spread? written by Donald G. McNeil Jr. and Denise Grady. It was written in The New York Times on January 2, 2012.
Recently, it was reported that two teams of scientists had altered a deadly flu virus to make it more contagious. Biosecurity advisers to the American government have urged that details not be published for fear that terrorists may use them. Some scientists believe that this should not have done because if the virus slipped out of the lab it could set off a lethal epidemic. But the research could help with creating antiviral drugs and vaccines.
The virus that was made more contagious was the avian flu or more commonly, the bird flu. It has only infected about 600 people since it has been discovered but it killed more than half of them. It is rare for humans to transmit this virus to one another but if that changes it could become a terrible pandemic.
Bird flu viruses live best in the lower lungs of humans and that makes it harder for it to be spread to others. Dr. Fouchier, a scientist in Rotterdam, stated “In humans, bird flu viruses live best in the lower lungs, which makes it harder for them to escape in sneezes and coughs.” This shows that the virus is seldom spread from human to human. In birds, the flu is spread through feces unlike in humans where the virus is living in the lungs. People working at a chicken farm or a live bird market are more at risk for getting the virus. Reassuringly this new virus appears to be weak against existing vaccines and flu drugs.
This article relates to a couple of the things we have learned about during class. It shows how disease is sometimes used as a biological weapon and how the government does not want to give information about it out because of how it might be used. The article also discusses the ways in which the virus can be spread. It stated that the rare cases of human-to-human transmissions have involved long, close contact. We have learned of a couple diseases that also involve human contact but in this case it is very rare to be spread that way.
In some ways I do believe it is important to do research and maybe alter viruses to help with future epidemics or to help with vaccination. But scientists do have to be careful because if the diseases ever got out of the lab they could start an epidemic.
I believe it is extremely important that scientist study disease safely in labs because if there ever was to be an outbreak we'd have information and hopefully vaccines. This way the disease hopefully would not be able to take a lot of lives. There is always the continuous scare of the bacteria escaping the labotory, but I believe if the scientists are doing their jobs correctly we are in no danger.
ReplyDeleteI think that it's great when science can do all these amazing things and help vaccines, but it still is terrifying that bio-terrorism is something that could very easily become a prevalent problem anywhere in the world. I can vaguely remember, years ago, taking pre-cautions against "Bird Flu" but I didn't know why. And today, there hasn't been much about it that has come to my attention. I think education is one of the most important things we can use to fight against disease and infection. I agree, that this is a sticky situation for the government, but they should be prepared for mass education of epidemic disease, just in case anything horrible involving bio-terrorism might happen in the future.
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