Ron Fouchier: In the Eye of the Storm

摘要

In a statement posted on the Web sites of Nature and Science last week and published on page 400 of this issue, a group of leading influenza researchers announced a 2-month moratorium on studies that make the avian influenza strain H5N1 more transmissible between mammals. The moratorium is intended to allow time for an international debate about this type of research, which some people say has the potential to help bioterrorists. Science talked to Ron Fouchier of Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, who carried out one of the two studies that triggered the international debate. (His paper is under review at Science.) Fouchier's answers have been translated from Dutch and edited for clarity and brevity.