US embassy cable - 05ROME494

UNCLAS ROME 000494 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DHHS FOR OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 
STATE FOR OES/IHA 
STATE FOR OES/STC (V.COX) 
STATE FOR EUR/WE (ADAMS/FETCHKO) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TBIO, SOCI, IT 
SUBJECT: ITALIAN MINISTER OF HEALTH INVITATION TO EXPAND 
BILATERAL MOU ON HEALTH AND MEDICAL SCIENCES 
 
REF: ROME 000492 
 
1.  The Embassy has received a copy of a February 11, 2005 
letter sent from Italian Minister of Health Girolamo Sirchia 
to HHS Secretary Leavitt proposing to expand the bilateral 
MOU on Health and Medical Sciences (2003) to include 
cooperation on obesity, diabetes, and complementary and 
alternative medicine.  Sirchia also invites Secretary Leavitt 
to visit Italy.  Text of Sirchia's letter, which is in 
English, is in para 2. 
 
2. BEGIN TEXT OF SIRCHIA LETTER TO SECRETARY LEAVITT: 
 
Dear Secretary, 
 
First of all I would like to warmly congratulate you for your 
recent appointment as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human 
Services.  It would be a great pleasure for me to have an 
opportunity to meet you in the next (sic near) future to 
discuss with you issues of common interest and future 
collaborations between the U.S.A. and Italy in the health 
sector. 
 
I sincerely hope that your appointment will make possible to 
strengthen and further develop the fruitful collaboration 
between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and 
the Italian Ministry of Health, started with your 
predecessor, Mr. Tommy Thompson, particularly on oncology, 
rare diseases and bioterrorism in the framework of the 
Memorandum of Understanding in the area of Health and Medical 
Sciences, signed in Rome on 17 April 2003.  As I consider 
this scientific collaboration very important, I would like to 
further expand it to include the following subjects: obesity, 
diabetes (both in adults and children), and Complementary and 
Alternative Medicine. 
 
It seems to me that, in case you are in favor of such a 
proposal, this could be easily implemented by means of an 
"Addendum" to the Technical Annex to the above mentioned 
Memorandum, signed on 23 June 2003 in Washington, D.C. (see 
Annex 1). 
 
To make possible a first exchange of viewpoints and, 
possibly, the signature of the above-mentioned "Addendum" to 
the Technical Annex, I am pleased to invite you to visit 
Italy at your earliest convenience.  In case your engagements 
would make (it) difficult for you to accept my invitation in 
the short term and you will be attending the WHO Assembly 
during the week of May 2005, we could also organize a meeting 
at the margin of the Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. 
 
I would like to take this opportunity to convey to you my 
sentiments of esteem and friendship. 
 
-                                                     //  SS 
// 
-                                       Prof. Girolamo 
Sirchia, MD, FRCP, Edin 
 
END TEXT OF LETTER 
 
3.  COMMENT:  As reported in reftel, Minister Sirchia has 
recently been accused in the Italian press of receiving 
payments for consulting fees from an American company that 
supplies blood testing equipment.  The same company is also 
accused of paying kickbacks to other Italian doctors in 
exchange for contracts.  The incidents supposedly occurred in 
1999-2000, before Sirchia became minister.  Minister Sirchia 
has flatly denied the allegations.  END COMMENT. 
 
SEMBLER 
 
 
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 2005ROME00494 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED