Geneva - Global health experts have warned that pioneering research into organ transplants from animals to humans must urgently be regulated to prevent diseases jumping the species barrier in a similar manner to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
The call is contained in policy proposals submitted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to its Executive Board, which started a one-week meeting on Monday.
WHO officials said the experimental transplants were on the verge of going ahead in some countries, but there was little regulation to keep track of what is going on or to prevent the misuse of xenotransplantation or animal-to-human transplants.
"The principal concerns are safety concerns," said Alex Capron, WHO director of ethics, trade, human rights and law, calling for "protective measures".
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Capron underlined the dangers of humans accidentally acquiring animal viruses through infected organs or tissue, and of possible further secondary transmission to other people.
"The risks in terms of immune reactions and the transfer of animal pathogens to not only the individual recipient, but potentially in to the general population as we saw with SARS... pose as of yet unquantified risks," he told journalists.
The WHO wants its 192 member states to stop xenotransplantation until they have a regulatory framework, which barely exists anywhere at the moment, Capron said.
"The sense of the consultants was that there is a need for restrictions," he added.
Humans in southern China are believed to have been infected by the SARS virus for the first time in late 2002 after close contact with animals.
The WHO has also highlighted recent outbreaks of deadly avian flu, warning of the dangers of the virus jumping from animals to humans and then merging with the human influenza virus.
Unregulated xenotransplantation could add to those naturally-occurring risks, according to health experts. - Sapa-AFP
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