Department of Epidemiology and Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
mBio. 2012 Oct 9;3(5):e00360-12. doi: 10.1128/mBio.00360-12.
If accidentally released, mammalian-transmissible influenza A/H5N1 viruses could pose a greater threat to public health than possibly any other infectious agent currently under study in laboratories, because of such viruses' likely combination of transmissibility and virulence to humans. We advocate explicit risk-benefit assessments before work on such pathogens is permitted or funded, improvement of biosafety practices and enforcement, and harmonization of criteria for permitting such experiments across government agencies, as well as internationally. Such potential pandemic pathogens, as they have been called, jeopardize not only laboratory workers and their contacts, but also the wider population, who should be involved in assessments of when such risks are acceptable in the service of scientific knowledge that may itself bear major public health benefits.
如果意外释放，哺乳动物传播的甲型 H5N1 流感病毒可能比目前实验室研究的任何其他传染性病原体对公共健康构成更大的威胁，因为这些病毒可能具有在人与人之间传播的能力和对人类的毒性。我们主张在允许或资助此类病原体的工作之前，进行明确的风险效益评估，改进生物安全实践和执行，并协调政府机构以及国际上允许进行此类实验的标准。正如人们所说，这些潜在的大流行病原体不仅危及实验室工作人员及其接触者，还危及更广泛的人群，应该让他们参与评估何时可以接受这些风险，以服务于可能本身对公众健康带来重大利益的科学知识。
