# 1028
A hat tip to Crof at Crofsblog for finding this article by Helen Branswell on the ethical dilemmas involved in studying flu transmission.
Making people sick may be only way to trace how influenza spreads
HELEN BRANSWELL
The Canadian Press
July 30, 2007
(CP) - The mission of medicine is to keep or make people well. But sometimes it takes letting people get sick to figure out how to do that.
Scientists and public health officials are exploring the notion of deliberately exposing healthy volunteers to people sick with influenza to chart how flu spreads from one nose to the next.
The idea isn't being driven by idle curiosity. Finding a way to plug a very fundamental gap in knowledge about this common disease could help cut the number of influenza cases every winter and could save lives during the next flu pandemic.
"It is gobsmacking in a way that we've got to the 21st century and we still don't properly understand how influenza is transmitted," admits Dr. Jonathan Van Tam, an influenza expert with Britain's Health Protection Agency.
As always, a well written and thought provoking piece by Ms. Branswell. It reminds us how little we really know about something as ubiquitous as the flu.
Highly recommended that you read the entire article.
