July 24, 2013
Australian researchers are joining forces with scientists overseas to prepare for the next human pandemic.
A new SARS-like virus has emerged in the Middle East and killed 45 people, and in China a new strain of bird flu is killing people instead of chickens.
CSIRO Biosecurity Flagship Director Gary Fitt will tell Australia’s leading biosecurity researchers on Thursday recent global events highlight the need to ramp up research into viruses that spread from animals to humans.
“We now know that 70 per cent of new diseases in people have originated in animals,” he says in a statement.
“We are lucky to have a strong biosecurity system, backed by world-class science, but we live in an increasingly connected world with trade and people movements putting us at greater risk.”
He says CSIRO and Duke-NUS (an alliance between Duke University in the US and the National University of…
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