[Ip-health] AP: CDC Releasing Gene Blueprints

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

 Associated Press


 CDC Releasing Gene Blueprints

 By MIKE STOBBE
 AP MEDICAL WRITER
 Originally published August 23, 2006, 1:15 AM EDT

 ATLANTA // U.S. health officials have placed the genetic blueprints
 of more than 650 flu viruses into a public database, in an attempt to
 increase flu research and set an example for other nations.

 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deposited the
 information last week, CDC officials said Tuesday.

 The genetic information is only for naturally circulating viruses
 isolated in the United States. It includes data from the annual U.S.
 flu season, animal flu viruses that infect humans, and new strains
 that may emerge in this country, such as the H5N1 bird flu.

 The data were deposited in Genbank, a public-access library for virus
 sequences managed by the National Institutes of Health, and in a
 database housed at Los Alamos National Laboratories.

 The action stems from a collaboration with the Association of Public
 Health Laboratories, which represents state labs, where most of the
 virus information originates.

 The organizations expect to bank genetic information for several
 hundred flu viruses each year, CDC officials said,

 Scientists need easy access to information about evolving viruses for
 their work on vaccines and treatments, said Rosemary Humes, the
 association's director of infectious diseases.

 "It really is important that researchers have access to information
 about influenza viruses as they change each year," she said.

 The action follows instances in which some Asian countries failed to
 share bird flu information with the CDC and the World Health
 Organization. In Indonesia, officials for months withheld the
 blueprints of H5N1 viruses isolated from people and poultry. The
 country this month changed its position and sent isolates abroad.

 After the Indonesian government agreed to share the information, CDC
 officials placed total genome sequences for about 40 of the H5N1
 viruses into GenBank.

 "We hope these initiatives will set the stage for other countries to
 adopt similar approaches to the release of influenza virus sequence
 data that they manage," Dr. Nancy Cox, director of the CDC's
 Influenza Division, said in a statement.

 Some developing countries are reluctant to share bird flu data
 because they believe pharmaceutical companies will use it to create
 vaccines they won't be able to afford, said Edward Hammond, director
 of the Sunshine Project.

 "The way that the CDC should set an example is to attack the problem
 of vaccine costs rather than simply insist that openness is the
 solution. Openness is only part of the solution," he said.

 The Sunshine Project is an Austin, Texas-based organization that
 advocates more control of biological weapons and biotechnology.
 Hammond voiced concerns when CDC officials last year recreated the
 1918 pandemic flu virus and decided to place the gene-sequencing
 information in GenBank.

 He is not as worried about the public availability of genetic
 information on naturally circulating viruses, he said. "This is not
 really a bioweapons issue," Hammond said.