Global initiative launched to tackle avian flu

Significant steps in tackling avian flu have been called for under new global plans to halt the spread of the virus by sharing research data.

Announced today in the online Nature journal, the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID) is already backed by over 70 scientists and health officials, including six Nobel laureates.

According to Nature, present data on outbreaks currently remains restricted by governments, or kept private by a small network of researchers linked to international animal or public health agencies.

The scheme’s supporters believe that this secrecy is unacceptable and more must be done to spread global awareness of how to tackle the virus by sharing research data.

So far avian flu has already damaged economies worldwide and the safety of food in developing countries.

“The current level of collection and sharing of data is inadequate, however, given the magnitude of the threat,” the scheme’s backers write.

“The full support of the international scientific community is therefore urgently needed to understand better the spread and evolution of the virus, and the determinants of its transmissibility and pathogenicity in humans.”

They add that scientists from different fields of expertise should have full access to data.

Scientists participating in GISAID would deposit data in three publicly available databases – the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) and GenBank – which will then be analysed jointly and published no later than six months after submission.

GISAID’s backers believe that the scheme would also attract attention to the need to help countries build comprehensive disease-surveillance programmes.

More than 130 people have been killed in six countries across the world by the H5N1 strain of avian flu after they came into contact with infected birds. Experts fear that the rapid spread of the disease could prompt a global flu pandemic if the virus mutates so that it is more easily transferable between humans.

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