Controversial studies on the avian flu virus should eventually be published in full, participants at a meeting convened by the World Health Organization agreed, but publication and further research should continue to be “paused” until some key issues can be addressed. The two-day, closed-door meeting (see a list of participants here ) ended today without any firm deadline for when the two studies — which describe mutations in the H5N1 virus that make it transmissible between some mammals — should be published or how long a research moratorium should last. The editors of Science and Nature had previously agreed to hold off on publication of the studies until at least the end of this month, Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told us in January . Rachel Twinn, a spokeswoman for Nature, said the journal had no further comments or updates at this stage.  (The editor-in-chief of Science will speak to reporters shortly; we’ll update with his comments when they’re available.) Meantime, the authors of the studies signed a letter last month saying they’d take a 60-day break from such research to allow an international scientific discussion about the controversy. Meeting participants were in agreement that the full studies should eventually be published, said Keiji Fukuda , assistant director-general of health security and environment for the WHO, on a conference call with reporters. Putting out redacted or heavily edited versions was not a good alternative, he said. “They felt that the information contained in the full articles really

was needed,” both for scientific and public-health reasons, he said. In addition, it became clear that the logistics of publishing redacted studies — including figuring out who would hold on to the sensitive, unpublished information — would be too difficult to do quickly. Instead, participants thought it better to wait and publish the full studies. So what are they waiting for? Two things, said Fukuda. First, there needs to be a public communications and awareness effort to explain why this type of research is conducted and how it’s done, “so there isn’t a new wave of anxiety,” he said. And concerns about the biosafety and biosecurity aspects of this type of research need to be addressed, he said. While there’s been “no hint of any breakdown” in safety or security procedures associated with the studies done at the University of Wisconsin-Madison or Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, the notion of a virus being made more transmissible than other H5N1 viruses is “serious” and “sobering” for many people, said Fukuda. So it’s “a good time to assess how we do research on these types of viruses.” Both of those efforts will be “dealt with in the next several months,” said Fukuda, without giving a specific timeline. Broader questions of how to balance the potential benefits of research that could be used either for the good or bad of public health will have to be addressed at future meetings, said Fukuda.

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Avian Flu Experts Agree ‘Pauses’ on Publication, Research Should Continue