FLICKR, CHDXXIn August 2013 letters to the journals Science and Nature, 22 virologists notified the research community of their intent to develop and research strains of the already deadly H7N9 influenza virus so that it would be transmissible via aerosols among mammals. The wild-type H7N9 strain is not aerosol transmissible among humans and shows only limited respiratory aerosol transmission among ferrets, so the aim is to confer what is known as gain of function by making the virus mammalian transmissible, or mtGOF. H7N9 caused more than 130 human infections, including 43 fatalities, from handling poultry in China. Those infections tapered off last summer but may be picking up again as flu season approaches.
Back in May, scientists in China published experiments describing hybrids of the H5N1 avian flu virus and the 2009 pandemic H1N1 virus that can be transmitted through the air among guinea pigs. The H5N1 avian flu virus kills more than 60 percent of humans reported infected from handling poultry, but it is rarely contagious among humans.
The voluntary moratorium on research that made the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus contagious in ferrets via respiratory aerosols lifted this January, and research has resumed. These mtGOF flu strains may already be highly contagious in humans.
These examples of mtGOF research may signal the beginning of widespread interest in making dangerous pathogens such as flu viruses contagious in humans via respiratory aerosols.
What is the likelihood that one ...
