The Hague: A top Dutch scientist heading a team which created a mutant killer flu virus on Wednesday said the threat to global biosecurity is being overplayed, even if full research results are published.
"The threat to bio-security is not as big as everybody thinks," Ron Fouchier, whose team at the Rotterdam Erasmus Medical Centre announced the mutant version in September, said. "Recreating this virus is definitely not easy. You need highly-skilled people and a very large team, as well as specialised facilities to do this type of work."
The research has sparked fears that a pandemic could be triggered if it emerged in nature or fell into hands of bio-terrorists or rogue countries.
The US government urged the journals Science and Nature to withhold key details of Fouchier's team's research. Fouchier however, said publishing the full findings, including a detailed description of the mutated virus could help save lives in case of an outbreak.
