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Cablegate: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U. S.

VZCZCXRO5449
RR RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHGH RUEHPB
DE RUEHBJ #0065/01 0120745
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 120745Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHGT/AMEMBASSY GUATEMALA 0004
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 0001
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 0384
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 6850
RUEHAST/AMCONSUL ALMATY 0009
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7574
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHINGTON DC
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHDC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC//USDP/ISA/AP//
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE
RUEHPH/CDC ATLANTA GA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 000065

HHS PASS TO MONAHAN AND MILLER
CDC ATLANTA PASS TO CGH BLOUNT, KELLY, DOWELL, AND SIMONE, TO
INFLUENZA PASS TO COX AND TO EMERGING INFECTIONS PASS TO PINNER
AMEMBASSY GUATEMALA CITY FOR CDC AND PASS TO DANEL AND SCHOMOYER
AMEMBASSY NAIROBI FOR CDC AND PASS TO DECOCK, WHEELER AND BREIMAN
AMEMBASSY CAIRO FOR CDC AND PASS TO DUEGER
AMEMBASSY BANGKOK FOR CDC AND PASS TO MALISON, CHONG AND MALONEY
USOFFICE ALMATY FOR CDC AND PASS TO MORAN
STATE FOR EAP/CM, OES/PCI, AND OES/IHB

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

TAGS: PREL SENV TBIO SOCI CH GT KE EG TH KZ
SUBJECT: U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (U. S.
CDC) ENHANCES EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASE INVESTIGATION, RESPONSE
AND CONTROL IN CHINA

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BEIJING 00000065 001.2 OF 003


1. (SBU) Summary: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (U.S. CDC) and U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (U.S. HHS) have a strong and valued partnership with
China's Ministry of Health (MOH), Chinese Center for Disease Control
and Prevention (China CDC) and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences
(CAMS). In 2005, the China MOH and the U.S. HHS signed a Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) to establish the China-U.S. Collaborative
Program on Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases (EID), which
includes activities of the U.S. CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA), and the U.S. National Institutes of Health
(NIH). To date, the vast majority of the work has been with U.S.
CDC and the rest with NIH. During 2010, these agencies will work to
renew the MOU and include future project areas and partnerships
across the Chinese Government and with universities. This cable
provides an overview of the U.S. HHS and MOH Collaborative Committee
Meeting and the EID annual meeting; and provides the timeline for
the next MOU completion and highlighting U.S. CDC's 2010
activities.

THE FUTURE OF THE U.S.-CHINA COLLABORATION ON INFECTIOUS DISEASE
RESPONSE

2. (SBU) On 2 December 2009, the China-U.S. Collaborative Program
on Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) held its
annual Collaborative Committee Meeting. Representatives from the
United States' HHS, CDC, FDA and NIH met with counterparts from
China's Ministry of Health (MOH), the Chinese Center for Disease
Control and Prevention (China CDC) and the Chinese Academy of
Medical Sciences (CAMS). As stipulated in the EID MOU, this
Collaborative Committee Meeting between U.S. HHS and China MOH is
held annually to guide EID activities. Dr. REN Minghui (MOH) and
Mr. John Monahan (HHS) co-chaired the meeting. Beijing based HHS
staff including Ms. Elizabeth Yuan (HHS), Dr. Jeffrey McFarland
(CDC), Dr. Ray Chen (NIH) and Dr. Brenda Uratani (FDA) actively
participated as representatives for their respective agencies during
the meeting. Both sides endorsed the importance of the EID
cooperation towards building China's capacity to respond to emerging
and re-emerging infectious diseases such as the current H1N1
pandemic. The meeting had three primary outcomes: (1) an agreement
on EID focus areas, including broadening of partnerships within
China and expansion of work within current partnerships; (2) a
decision to conduct an evaluation and assessment of the 5-year
cooperation to date; (3) and a plan and timeline to renew the 5-year
EID MOU.

3. (U) Meeting attendees decided on priority projects for the 2010
EID collaboration and agreed in principle to include language in the
next MOU expanding the type and number of Chinese partners,
including local governments and universities. Building capacity for
infectious disease programs and research in China remains the
highest priority of the collaboration. China MOH specifically
expressed a desire for an increase in the number of senior China CDC
officials participating in fellowships at U.S. CDC headquarters,
increased training offered by U.S. experts in China, quality
assurance training for seasonal influenza surveillance networks
sites and expansion of the U.S. CDC supervised Chinese Field
Epidemiology Training Program to 80 graduates per year from the
current 15 and provincial placements to at least 20 provinces
compared to the current 12. The Chinese counterparts specifically
mentioned potential future or expanded collaboration on the
following pathogens: emerging respiratory infectious diseases
(including influenza A / H5N1, so called bird flu and influenza A/
H1N1, the current pandemic influenza), multi-drug resistance
tuberculosis (MDR-TB), hospital infection control, hand foot and
mouth disease (HFMD-EV71), rickettsiosis and zoonoses. Partners

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also discussed strengthening the cooperation between public health
disease control services and clinical medicine entities in the
control of hospital infections, studying severe and fatal H1N1
cases, and assessing H1N1 prevention and control measures. Lastly,
the parties agreed to broaden the cooperation by encouraging future
collaborations with other ministries such as the Ministry of
Agriculture (MOA) and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), as
well as valuable collaborations with provincial and sub-provincial
health authorities and universities.

4. (U) Both parties agreed that an evaluation of the EID program
should occur before revising the MOU for renewal. Dr. Jeffrey
McFarland (CDC) and experts from China CDC will coordinate this
effort and complete an evaluation report no later than mid-March,
2010.

5. (U) The EID MOU renewal process will begin following the results
of the joint evaluation. A draft of the MOU will be discussed by
key officials in Geneva, Switzerland during the World Health
Assembly in May 2010. This process will be coordinated by Ms.
Elizabeth Yuan (HHS) and Mr. NIE Jiangang (MOH). Signing of the
final MOU should occur before October 31, 2010, the date the current
MOU is set to expire.

U.S. CDC REACTS TO CHINA'S NEEDS AND GLOBAL MITIGATION OF EMERGING
INFECTIOUS DISEASE THROUGH ITS 2010 ANNUAL PLAN

6. (U) U.S. CDC's component of the EID collaboration is largely
funded by the Global Disease Detection Program (GDD). GDD's work
focuses on outbreak response, pathogen discovery, surveillance,
training and networking. The 2010 annual plan outlines efforts to
help China respond to, mitigate and prevent emerging and re-emerging
infectious disease outbreaks both in China and beyond its borders.
2010 activities include: (a) increasing the annual enrollment of the
Chinese Field Epidemiology Training Program from 12 to 25 officers;
(b) collaborating with provinces to develop basic and intermediate
level epidemiologic capacity through the development of provincial
training programs; (c) expanding the number and breadth of field
investigations of disease outbreaks including assignments and
project in non-communicable disease from 80 to 100; (d) conducting
surveillance for severe respiratory and central nervous system
infections while supporting the establishment of nationwide Severe
Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) surveillance system; (e)
conducting surveillance for foodborne pathogens modeled after the
U.S. CDC's PulseNet system; (f) conducting training, developing
national policies, and conducting surveys about respiratory
infection control, including influenza and multi-drug resistant
tuberculosis (MDR-TB); (g) building laboratory capacity at the
national and sub-national levels to increase the number of pathogens
tested and quality of testing performed including the quality
assurance of the influenza virus surveillance network; (h) promoting
greater sharing of data, viral isolates and laboratory techniques
between U.S. CDC and China CDC; (i) updating the national policies
and guidelines on pandemic influenza response; (j) supporting field
investigations of influenza outbreaks of significance, including
those caused by influenza A / H1N1 and influenza A / H5N1; (k)
conducting operational research on the full impact of the H1N1
pandemic, including burden of disease, vaccine effectiveness and
description of severe cases and deaths; (l) supporting the National
Vaccination Program to assess the influenza vaccination program; (m)
conducting training for provincial spokespersons and provincial and
sub-provincial health communicators on implementing risk
communication principles such as rapid and transparent health
information to the public; (n) studying health literacy levels in
China's migrant and settled populations in urban locations to

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determine their comprehension of H1N1 prevention messages; (o) and
coordinating health messages between and among the national,
provincial and sub-provincial health authority communication
channels, such as 12320 hotlines, websites, SMS text messaging and
media and material development.

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