on 21 February 2013, 3:00 PM
Researchers interested in conducting studies with 15 potentially dangerous agents and toxins—including the H5N1 avian influenza virus—face some new hurdles in getting funding from the U.S. government. Federal officials today released two policy documents that lay out stricter requirements for institutional and government oversight of studies that pose especially problematic safety concerns.
One policy, released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), applies only to scientists seeking funds for experiments that might create new strains of the H5N1 virus that can move between mammals in respiratory droplets. (The virus normally infects birds.) Experts fear that such mammal-transmissible H5N1 viruses could spark a deadly human pandemic if they escape from a laboratory or are intentionally released by terrorists. U.S. officials outline the new policy today in a letter to Science.
The other document, released by the White.. http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2013/02/us-announces-more-new-rules-for-.html?ref=hp
