Zika Virus Focuses the Gain-of-Function Debate

Zika Virus Focuses the Gain-of-Function Debate

This year, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) will be making recommendations to the U.S. Government regarding the ongoing saga of gain-offunction (GOF) experiments with highly infectious respiratory pathogens, such as influenza virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus. If adopted into policy by ...

The Apocalypse as a Rhetorical Device in the Influenza Virus Gain-of-Function Debate

Humans are notoriously poor at assessing future benefits and risks. Consider nuclear power, which was born from a program to develop a weapon of mass destruction. When nuclear power was developed for commercial purposes, the risk was thought to be minimal and no one anticipated the disasters at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. On the other hand, no one initially anticipated the bene...

Is Iran threatened by Zika virus?

Zika virus is an Arbovirus identified first time in 1947 in Uganda. Zika epidemic is a threat far greater than the Ebola outbreak. The World Health Organization has urged Asian countries to be vigilant about the risk of spreading Zika virus and preventive measures to control it. In Iran, 64 species of mosquitoes from Culicidea family have been reported three of which belong to the Aedes genus, ...

Zika Virus Infection after Returning from Thailand

zika virus infection