Stef Stienstra
Sharing security threat information is a challenge for
governments and their agencies. Especially in biotechnology
and microbiology, the agencies do not know how to classify or
to disclose collected information on potential bio-threats.
There is vague border between man-made and natural
biological threats. An example is the several month delays of
the publication of research on the transmissibility of H5N1
avian influenza virus in the leading scientific journal science
by researchers of the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam,
Netherlands. The publication was delayed in 2012 by several
months due to the fact that various organizations first wanted
to investigate whether the details could be misused by
malicious individuals. In the study, the researchers show that
only a small number of mutations were necessary to change
the H5N1 virus so that it can spread through the respiratory
system between mammals. This implies that the risk of a
H5N1 pandemic cannot be ruled out. On the other hand, this
information can be used to develop new therapies and/or
vaccines for influenza. It also gives insight into the disease
mechanism, which helps in the prevention. The same
arguments are valid for therapeutic antibodies, like the
antibodies, which are developed to treat anthrax. They have
an extreme high affinity for the lethal factors of the bacterium
and stop the disease, but the same antibodies could be
misused to select the most pathogenic strains.
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Journal of Microbial Pathogenesis received 17 citations as per Google Scholar report
