July 16, 2014

The irrationality of GOF avian influenza virus research
Wain-Hobson S.
Front Public Health. 2014 Jul 16;2:77. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2014.00077. eCollection 2014.

The paper takes a detailed look at the claims put forward by the GOF influenza researchers to justify their work. The vaccine claim in particular doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

July 14, 2014

Cambridge Working Group Consensus Statement on the Creation of Potential Pandemic Pathogens (PPPs)
 
This is a statement resulting from the discussion of 18 researchers and concerned individuals in Boston. It expresses concern about the ongoing GOF research and calls for it to be curbed. It was ultimately signed by 295 individuals including Paul Berg and Stanley Falkow, architects of the 1975 Asilomar conference.

June 29, 2014

TWIV291 from 33rd annual meeting of the American Society for Virology (ASV) in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Ron Fouchier was a guest.

June 26, 2014

Nature Editorial - Biosafety in the balance. An accident with anthrax demonstrates that pathogen research always carries a risk of release — and highlights the need for rigorous scrutiny of gain-of-function flu studies.
Nature. 2014 Jun 26;510(7506):443.

“The fewer the labs that perform experiments, the smaller is the risk of an accidental release. But as the CDC accident reminds us, should gain-of-function flu research proliferate, in particular at facilities with less than exemplary biosafety standards, the risks of an accidental release of a potentially pandemic flu virus will be multiplied.”

June 11, 2014

Circulating avian influenza viruses closely related to the 1918 virus have pandemic potential.
Watanabe T, Zhong G, Russell CA, Nakajima N, Hatta M, Hanson A, McBride R, Burke DF, Takahashi K, Fukuyama S, Tomita Y, Maher EA, Watanabe S, Imai M, Neumann G, Hasegawa H, Paulson JC, Smith DJ, Kawaoka Y.
Cell Host Microbe. 2014 Jun 11;15(6):692-705. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2014.05.006.

Comment to be posted.

June 2014

Airborne transmission of highly pathogenic H7N1 influenza virus in ferrets.
Sutton TC, Finch C, Shao H, Angel M, Chen H, Capua I, Cattoli G, Monne I, Perez DR.
J Virol. 2014 Jun;88(12):6623-35. doi: 10.1128/JVI.02765-13. Epub 2014 Apr 2.

Sequence changes associated with respiratory transmission of H7N1 influenza virus in mammals.
Dermody TS, Sandri-Goldin RM, Shenk T.
J Virol. 2014 Jun;88(12):6533-4. doi: 10.1128/JVI.00886-14. Epub 2014 Apr 2.

May 12, 2014

Little evidence of subclinical avian influenza virus infections among rural villagers in Cambodia.
Gray GC, Krueger WS, Chum C, Putnam SD, Wierzba TF, Heil GL, Anderson BD, Yasuda CY, Williams M, Kasper MR, Saphonn V, Blair PJ.
PLoS One. 2014 May 12;9(5):e97097. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097097. eCollection 2014.


In 2008, 800 adults living within rural Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia were enrolled in a 2 year prospective cohort study of zoonotic influenza transmission. Apart from symptomatic human influenza infections a single symptomatic H5N1 infection of avian origin was identified. 

Interestingly a handful of symptomatic avian influenza infections were identified using patient sera. Using a conservative WHO accepted cut off for serum titers one individual scored positive using a H9N2 test virus and two others for a H12N5 virus. As the titer of human H5N1 convalescent sera wanes within one year these numbers are probably underestimates.

The paper shows that more strains of avian influenza viruses infect man than judged by symptomatic infections. Spill over resulting in asymptomatic infection could well be relatively common with symptomatic infections being a subset.