A YEAR ON, THE H5N1 DEBATE REMAINS INFECTIOUS, WITH NO END IN SIGHT.

The article discusses the controversy surrounding two H5N1 avian influenza studies, including one by virologist Ron Fouchier and colleagues at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, showing how H5N1 can be engineered so that it is transmissible among mammals. Topics include a voluntary moratorium on H5N1 research, a recommendation by the U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) against publishing the studies, and a debate over whether such studies are worth the risk.