Mutant Flu: Assessing Biosecurity Risks

Correspondence

Mutant flu: preparing influenza research (Nature The US Food and Drug Diabetes Council notes in the for a pandemic 481, 9–10, 2012), we should be Administration’s Office of New same article in The Australian that wary of reducing biosecurity Drugs reported to the IOM sugar consumption in Australia We at the global humanitarian measures merely to assigning committee in June 2011 that has dropped by 23% since 1980. organization Save the Children access rights to sensitive chimps are never required for But he adds that during that time, agree that controversy over lab- information and materials. A preclinical drug testing in the the number of overweight or created H5N1 avian influenza national security body made up United States, and that the obese people has doubled, while virus should not detract from of military and law-enforcement agency discourages the use of diabetes has tripled. the larger concern of global officials that puts confidentiality chimps for this purpose. The A literature review by preparedness for a flu pandemic stamps on dual-use research is IOM’s report Chimpanzees Australia’s National Health (Nature 482, 131; 2012). not in the long-term interest of in Biomedical and Behavioral Medical Research Council, In a pandemic flu situation, scientific progress. Research, released in December together with its draft dietary when all countries and Biosecurity in research needs 2011, also concludes that chimps guidelines of December 2011, responding organizations are to be integrated into a more are unnecessary for preclinical found that the evidence to stricken, we think it is unrealistic comprehensive strategy if it is to drug testing. support advice on added sugar to hope that the most resource- be effective and avoid harming The use of chimps for and obesity was “limited, poor communities around the public-health interests. preclinical drug trials in inconclusive or contradictory”. world will receive adequate As a member and chair of US centres by foreign drug Robert Lustig et al. have supplies of vaccine, antivirals several ethics-review panels companies is therefore contrary stimulated debate, yet have or antibiotics. We believe in of dual-use research for the to US practice and should be unnecessarily tarnished preparing now so that community European Union, I believe banned. the image of sugar. There is leaders, and the organizations that these research projects, John J. Pippin Physicians no evidence to suggest that working with them, can mitigate and their clearly foreseeable Committee for Responsible reducing sugar consumption the effects of a severe wave of implications, should have Medicine, Washington DC, USA. will halt the rise in obesity. The flu in the absence of substantial undergone a proper risk– [email protected] contributing factors are far more outside resources. benefit assessment before complex. As the World Health funding. They could then have Ron Boswell Brisbane, Organization has noted, non- been modified to accommodate Sugar: there’s more Queensland, Australia. pharmaceutical interventions additional risk-management to the obesity crisis [email protected] such as quarantine are crucial for procedures. an effective response, and may For example, threats to To describe sugar as “toxic” sometimes be the only means biosecurity could have been is extreme, as is its ludicrous Sugar: fruit fructose of delaying the spread of flu. Yet minimized by developing comparison with alcohol is still healthy most national plans lack practical diagnostic kits for early (Nature 482, 27–29; 2012). Such operational considerations (see detection and surveillance of sensationalism could damage Robert Lustig and colleagues go.nature.com/mi9sr3). the new genetic variants, and the livelihoods of thousands argue that sugar is “toxic” Detailed authoritative guidance by testing possible treatment of people working in the sugar (Nature 482, 27–29; 2012), on reducing flu transmission at strategies. It seems that none of industry worldwide, and will be focusing on the “deadly household and community levels, this was done. felt in countries such as Australia, effect” of the fructose moiety and on the home-based care of flu Johannes Rath University of the United States, Fiji, Mauritius, of sucrose. But they are patients, in low-resource settings Vienna, Austria. Indonesia and India. directing attention away is the most important, and needs [email protected] As the senator for Queensland, from the problem of general to be published. Support should Australia, where sugar is the overconsumption. also be provided to governments most significant agricultural Guidelines on healthy eating in developing countries to adapt Questionable use of crop, I wish to voice the encourage fruit consumption, this guidance for their settings. chimpanzees industry’s concerns. Consumers and fruit and fruit products We believe that such efforts should be assured that sugar is are the third-largest source of should be an urgent priority, and By conducting their experiments a safe ingredient and suitable fructose in the US diet. are concerned about this apparent at US chimpanzee centres, for consumption as part of a Our meta-analyses of gap in the most basic level of foreign scientists have been balanced diet. controlled feeding trials pandemic preparedness. circumventing their own nations’ Nutritionist Jennie Brand- indicate a net metabolic benefit, Eric S. Starbuck Save the Children, bans on chimpanzee research Miller of the University of with no harmful effects, Westport, Connecticut, USA. since 2005 (Nature 482, 132; Sydney is not alone in her from fructose at a level of [email protected] 2012). It is important to point out disgust that you published this intake obtainable from fruit that those scientists are almost all opinion piece (The Australian, (J. L. Sievenpiper et al. Br. J. employed by foreign-based drug 4 February 2012). The Dietitians Nutr., in the press). Mutant flu: assessing companies — as reported by a Association of Australia believes John L. Sievenpiper, Russell J. biosecurity risks US National Institutes of Health that it is simplistic and unhelpful de Souza, David J. A. Jenkins representative at the Institute of to blame sugar alone for the St Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, In the ongoing controversy Medicine (IOM) public hearing obesity crisis. Ontario, Canada. over the mutant H5N1 avian in May 2011. Alan Barclay of the Australian [email protected]