A global monitoring system should be established to detect and analyse threatening new viruses, say researchers.

Such a programme would routinely screen human blood and rapidly identify new pathogens, such as Sars, that might become a threat to human health.

Scientists want to sequence the genetic structure of the collected viruses to form a database of the genetic code of all those associated with humans. They are calling it the Human Virome Project.

It is the brainchild of Norman Anderson, of the privately funded Viral Defense Foundation in Maryland, US.

His proposal is contained in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, published by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the US.

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