Why Grow Dangerous Viruses?
In a chronicle recently published in Bergens Tidende, Professor Rebecca Cox Brokstad and Postdoctor Åsne Jul-Larsen from The Influenza Center, The Gade Institute, disucss ethical aspects related to the growth of dangerous viruses.
The Influenza virus
Two new studies from The Netherlands and USA reveal that it is probable that the bird flu virus has the potential to mutate, causing it to spread much more rapidly among the general population. However, this discovery leads to several ethical challenges. Is it responsible to grow dangerous viruses in the laboratory in the interest of science? Could the growth of such viruses provide us with so much information about how we could develop effective vaccines that it can be justified? Is there a risk that this information might end up in the wrong hands?
Precisely these questions are discussed by Rebecca Cox Brokstad and Åsne Jul-Larsen in the chronicle. Click here to read the chronicle in its entirety (In Norwegian only).
Last updated 17.1.2012
Nyheter fra The Gade Institute
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- Results of bird flu vaccine (05.10.2009)