US embassy cable - 05HANOI2289

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 HANOI 002289 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR G, CA/OCS/ACS/EAP, EAP/EX, EAP/BCLTV, EAP/EP, INR, 
OES/STC (MGOLDBERG), OES/IHA (DSINGER AND NCOMMELLA) 
BANGKOK FOR RMO, CDC, USAID/RDM/A (MFRIEDMAN) 
USDA FOR FAS/PASS TO APHIS 
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE FOR OSD/ISA/AP (LSTERN) 
USAID FOR ANE AND GH (DCAROLL, SCLEMENTS, AND PCHAPLIN) 
STATE PASS USTR (ELENA BRYAN) 
STATE ALSO PASS HHS/OGHA (EELVANDER) 
ROME FOR FAO 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: AMED, AMGT, CASC, EAGR, PINR, SOCI, PGOV, TBIO, VM, AFLU 
SUBJECT: VIETNAM'S AVIAN INFLUENZA SITUATION - SEPTEMBER 1, 
2005 
 
REF:  (A) STATE 153802  (B) HANOI  1729  (C) HCMC 855  (D) 
HCMC 891 
 
1.  (U) This cable is the first in a series of weekly 
reports requested in reftel A.  Avian influenza (AI) issues 
and developments in Vietnam were previously reported in ref 
B and C. 
 
2.  (SBU) Summary:  Vietnamese press reported a fatal case 
of the H5 strain was discovered August 28 in a district near 
Hanoi, likely from handling poultry, but World Health 
Organization (WHO) officials here have not yet been able to 
confirm this with the GVN.  WHO and Government of Vietnam 
(GVN) officials also confirmed this week that the H5N1 AI 
virus killed, for the first time, three Owston civet cats, 
in addition to its continued impact on the human and bird 
populations in Vietnam.  GVN has taken several steps to 
begin large-scale poultry vaccination programs in rural 
areas as well as in Hanoi (ref D), and has developed an 
Action Plan in an attempt to coordinate GVN response to a 
larger outbreak.  Other nations continue to provide 
technical assistance to the GVN and are working to 
coordinate their own response planning.  The GVN currently 
faces several obstacles in their efforts to combat AI: poor 
communication with rural areas, poor interagency 
cooperation, and lack of funding for prevention projects. 
End Summary. 
 
Latest Developments: Impact on People 
------------------------------------- 
 
3. (U) On September 1, Vietnamese press reported a fatal 
case of H5 had occurred earlier in the week in Soc Son, a 
district on the outskirts of Hanoi.  A Ministry of Health 
(MOH) official reportedly claimed that the victim likely 
contracted AI from handling an infected chicken.  No other 
details regarding the case are available at this time.  The 
WHO representative told us that he had not received any 
information formally or informally about this case.  Noting 
that the testing described in the article has not yet been 
completed, he said that it would be premature to make any 
judgment on the exact cause of death. 
 
4. (U) On August 5, 2005 the Ministry of Health (MOH) 
reported three new human cases of H5N1 AI since our last 
report in reftel B, two of which are fatalities.  One case 
occurred in Ha Tay Province, another in Tra Vinh Province, 
and a third in Ho Chi Minh City.  The cases in Tra Vinh 
Province and Ho Chi Minh City did not survive. 
 
5. (U) These recent incidents bring the total number of 
confirmed human cases reported by the WHO in Vietnam since 
December 2003 to 90, with 40 deaths.  There have been 63 
cases, with 20 deaths, since December 2004. There have been 
112 total cases in Southeast Asia. 
 
 
Latest Developments: Impact on Animals 
-------------------------------------- 
 
6. (U) An important development this past week is the 
discovery that three Owston civet cats in Cuc Phuong 
National Park (Ninh Binh Province, 120km south of Hanoi) 
died of the H5N1 strain of AI after eating infected poultry 
meat.  This is the first incident of its kind, indicating a 
new species susceptible to the disease.  According to press 
reports, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 
Representative in Vietnam, Anton Rychener, verified that 
blood samples sent to Hong Kong confirmed the cause of 
death.  The animals died in June 2005, though the cause of 
death has just been announced. 
 
7. (U) According to August 17, 2005 press reports, the 
National Steering Committee for Bird Flu Prevention and 
Control has determined that since April 1, 2005, AI 
outbreaks have been reported in 19 different farms located 
in eight provinces or cities.  No other details were 
available. 
 
8. (U) The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development 
(MARD) recently announced that nationwide, almost 44 million 
poultry died or were destroyed between December 2003 and 
November 2004, while only two million poultry have perished 
since December 2004. 
 
9. (U) The press reported August 29, 2005 that MARD warned 
that 50 percent of waterfowl transported into Hanoi and 10 
percent of those being raised there test positive for the 
H5N1 strain.  We have no data to verify this information. 
There are approximately 4.2 million poultry and waterfowl in 
Hanoi. 
 
 
Vietnam's Efforts 
----------------- 
 
10. (U) Most prominent among the GVN's efforts to combat AI 
is the new poultry vaccination program, the pilot for which 
is progressing rather slowly.  On August 5, 2005, MARD began 
vaccinating poultry in the northern province of Nam Dinh and 
the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang to determine the 
efficacy of recently purchased vaccinations from China and 
the Netherlands.  As of August 25, 2005, MARD confirmed they 
had only vaccinated 72 percent of the communes in Nam Dinh 
and 30 percent of those in Tien Giang.  Reftel D reports in 
detail on the program in Tien Giang. 
 
11. (U) This past week MARD announced it also began a 
poultry vaccination pilot program in Hanoi.  This program 
will be expanded into a mass vaccination campaign scheduled 
to start between September 15-30.  To date, the GVN has 
invested USD 21 million in an effort to slow the spread of 
the virus. 
 
12. (U) According to recent press reports, MARD has proposed 
a total ban on the slaughter of live poultry in Hanoi's 
markets beginning in July 2006. 
 
13. (U) In addition to these vaccination efforts, the MOH 
has prepared an Action Plan on Influenza A/H5N1 Prevention 
and Control, which was previously passed by Embassy Hanoi to 
officials at the Department of Health and Human Services, 
the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture (USDA).  A copy has also been sent 
to State.  The plan provides a general blueprint of 
primarily MOH responsibilities and activities for responding 
to an AI epidemic.  It also briefly outlines the roles and 
responsibilities of other GVN ministries but does not 
explain how inter-ministerial activities will be coordinated 
during an epidemic to mount an effective response. 
 
Third Country Efforts 
--------------------- 
 
14. (U) Equally important in Vietnam are the efforts of 
other countries, including those of the United States, to 
combat the H5N1 strain of AI.  Technical assistance, 
political support and response planning have all been a 
critical part of these efforts. 
 
15. (U) The United States has offered significant technical 
assistance to the GVN, which is scheduled to take place 
through a USD 400,000 USDA training program.  The funding 
for this program comes from the FY2004 monetization of a 
USDA food aid program.  USDA and MARD are currently working 
on a training plan.  However, the Ministry of Finance (MOF), 
in particular, has concerns with the way in which the 
program will be implemented by USDA.  It remains unclear at 
present when the program will begin.  FAS Hanoi and USDA 
continue efforts to resolve the issue as quickly as 
possible. 
 
16. (U) The WHO and the National Institute of Hygiene and 
Epidemiology (NIHE), a part of Vietnam's MOH, recently 
requested and received assistance from a team of outside 
vaccine experts who visited the scientists involved in the 
development of a human AI vaccine.  This was a follow-up to 
a WHO consultation conducted earlier in the year.  The team 
was generally pleased with the progress of the vaccine 
development process.  Specific recommendations from the team 
were submitted to NIHE and to the WHO. 
 
17. (U) The Ambassador met July 12, 2005 with MARD Minister 
Cao Duc Phat to discuss U.S. concerns over the spread of AI 
and Vietnamese efforts to combat the disease. This 
discussion was followed by the August 14-17, 2005 visit of 
HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Health Preparedness 
Stewart Simonson, who met with senior officials from both 
MOH and MARD to explore new areas of cooperation in 
combating the disease. 
 
18. (SBU) The diplomatic community in Hanoi continues to 
actively review its response plans in case of a larger 
epidemic.  The most recent of these events took place on 
August 30, 2005, when U.S. Embassy Hanoi's Management 
Counselor and its Consular Section Chief participated in a 
luncheon roundtable discussion on AI organized by the 
British Embassy.  Representatives from other embassies and 
the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) also 
participated, and discussion centered on tripwires, draw- 
down planning and evacuation logistics. 
 
19. (U) Finally, on September 6, 2005, WHO will host a 
briefing open to the entire diplomatic community to discuss 
and coordinate efforts to combat the disease as well as 
response plans to larger outbreaks. 
 
Vietnam's Obstacles 
------------------- 
 
20. (SBU) Internally, the GVN's largest obstacle to 
effective disease prevention and control remains 
coordination between the different ministries and 
organizations involved. Communication in rural areas is also 
a significant problem. 
 
21. (U) The GVN also faces some funding obstacles to address 
much-needed prevention education in rural areas.  The 
Vietnamese Poultry Association (VPA) has approached the 
Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) in Hanoi with a proposal 
for a Vietnamese-language instructional film on AI 
prevention and sustainable development for the poultry 
industry.  Experts from MARD, MOH and the VPA would 
participate.  They propose to distribute copies of the film 
on a CD to extension agents in each province. 
 
22. (U) The Embassy will provide USD 1,500 to produce the 
film but additional funds of USD 4,800 are still needed to 
produce 12,800 CD diskettes. 
MINIMIZE CONSIDERED 
MARINE