Science        
1 March 2013 vol 339, issue 6123, pages 1001-1112
http://www.sciencemag.org/current.dtl

Policy Forum – Research Funding
A Framework for Decisions About Research with HPAI H5N1 Viruses
Amy P. Patterson1,*, Lawrence A. Tabak1, Anthony S. Fauci1, Francis S. Collins1, Sally Howard2
+ Author Affiliations
1National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
2Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC 20201, USA.

Excerpt
Since it appeared in Hong Kong in 1997, the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus has presented a persistent threat to public health and agriculture. Worldwide, hundreds of millions of birds have died as a result of infections or culling to prevent further spread of outbreaks among domestic flocks (1). HPAI H5N1 has caused severe respiratory illness and death in a relatively small number of humans—primarily those who have worked in direct contact with infected poultry (2). Of the ∼600 laboratory-confirmed human cases from 2003 to the present, nearly 60% were fatal. At present, the virus does not appear well-adapted for sustained transmission among mammals by respiratory droplets. However, if the viruses occurring in nature were to become readily transmissible among mammals, they could pose the risk of a pandemic….