as contagious as the regular influenza viruses which we see every year

The United States government has stepped in and asked the scientists who managed to develop a very contagious form of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus to leave out details of exactly how they did it for fear that should the knowledge fall in to the wrong hands it could be used as a lethal weapon!

The information about the new bird flu virus which was discovered by researchers working at the Erasmus University Medical Center in Holland and the University of Wisconsin-Madison was going to be shared in a number of respected scientific journals, but in what has been described as a completely unprecedented step biosecurity advisers to the American government put forward the requests to the scientist asking them to leave out the important details of how it was manufactured.

The viruses which are now locked up in an undisclosed high security compound could be deadly if they are released into the atmosphere. At present the H5N1 influenza virus is not too much of a threat to humanity because it is contagious only among birds and not among humans. The new lab created H5N1 virus however was tweaked to make it as contagious as the regular influenza viruses which we see every year. Imagine if regular flu viruses killed more than 50 percent of those people they infected!

The research which was funded by the United States National Institutes of Health will be used to good effect because it will increase the understanding of how exactly flu viruses mutate and possibly allow scientists to come up with influenza vaccines and medications to counteract their effects.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is the head of infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health explained that the decision to withhold the information was not taken easily because it was felt that by not sharing the data other scientists around the world would not be able to make use of the discovery for further research.

However the good news is that the United States government will allow specific researchers to make use of the full genetic makeup of the new virus for further study. The editors of the clinical journals Science and Nature both protested about the withholding of information but were reassured by the U.S. government's pledge to allow individual scientists especially those in Far Eastern countries which have faced the brunt of the H5N1 virus to make use of the new discovery.