US embassy cable - 05HANOI2825

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 HANOI 002825 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR G; CA/OCS/ACS/EAP; EAP/EX; EAP/MLS; EAP/EP; INR; 
OES/STC (PBATES); OES/IHA (DSINGER AND NCOMELLA) 
BANGKOK FOR RMO, CDC, USAID/RDM/A (MFRIEDMAN) 
USDA FOR FAS/PASS TO APHIS 
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE FOR OSD/ISA/AP (LSTERN) 
HOMELAND SECURITY COUNCIL FOR RVENKAYYA 
NSC FOR FSHIRZAD AND JMELINE 
USAID FOR ANE AND GH (DCAROLL, SCLEMENTS AND PCHAPLIN) 
STATE PASS USTR (ELENA BRYAN) 
STATE ALSO PASS HHS/OGHA (WSTEIGER AND EELVANDER) 
USMISSION GENEVA FOR HEALTH ATTACHE 
ROME FOR FAO 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - DO NOT POST ON THE INTERNET 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: AMED, AMGT, CASC, EAGR, PINR, SOCI, PGOV, TBIO, VM, HIV/AIDS, AFLU 
SUBJECT: HHS SECRETARY LEAVITT'S MEETING WITH THE DIRECTOR 
OF THE VIETNAMESE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HYGIENE AND 
EPIDEMIOLOGY 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  U.S. Secretary of Health and Human 
Services (HHS) Michael Leavitt met with the Director of 
Vietnam's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology 
(NIHE), Dr. Nguyen Tran Hien, on October 14 to highlight 
NIHE's efforts to combat avian influenza (AI), learn about 
the Institute's ongoing research and vaccine development 
work, and identify areas for expanded cooperation.  The 
Secretary and his delegation then toured NIHE's AI vaccine 
 
SIPDIS 
production and HIV testing facilities.  End Summary. 
 
NIHE'S MISSION AND FOCUS 
------------------------ 
 
2. (U) On October 14, U.S. HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt met 
with the Director of Vietnam's National Institute of Hygiene 
and Epidemiology (NIHE), Dr. Nguyen Tran Hien, for 25 
minutes, the second in a series of meetings with Vietnamese 
officials on improving U.S.-Vietnam health cooperation.  A 
full list of participants follows in paragraphs 13, 14, and 
15.   NIHE Director Hien opened with a PowerPoint 
presentation that explained NIHE's history, structure, 
functions and primary research topics. 
 
3. (SBU) Hien explained that NIHE was originally called the 
Pasteur Institute, founded in 1926 under French rule. 
(NOTE:  The North Vietnamese Government nationalized the 
Pasteur facilities at independence; there is now a Pasteur 
Institute in HCMC and a separate Pasteur Institute branch in 
Nha Trang.  NIHE is the only Pasteur facility in Hanoi.  END 
NOTE.)  Only in 1962 did it evolve into its present form, 
which includes 12 technical departments and five 
administrative and logistical departments; NIHE is an arm of 
the Vietnamese Ministry of Health.  The twelve technical 
departments reflect NIHE's focus on disease research and 
control.  They include epidemiology, bacteriology, virology, 
molecular biology and immunology, HIV/AIDS, infection 
control and biosafety, medical entomology and zoology, 
national coordination offices, training and research 
management, network coordination, animal experimentation, 
and vaccine and biological production.  Hien said NIHE's 427- 
person staff is split between the NIHE facility (256 
employees) and the co-located, state-owned Vaccine 
Production Company (171 employees). 
 
4. (SBU) The Institute has five main functions, Hien 
continued.  The primary function is research, in which NIHE 
focuses on three specific areas.  The first is research into 
epidemiology, including vaccine trials.  The second research 
area focuses on microbiology and virology, especially 
diagnostic protocols and drug resistance.  The third area of 
research is immunology and molecular biology, which has 
produced test kits for diagnosing infectious diseases. 
 
5. (U) The second function is training.  Postgraduates, 
graduate students, laboratory technicians and provincial 
health workers all have access to different types of 
training throughout NIHE's twelve technical departments. 
The third function, supervision of the preventive medicine 
system in Vietnam, is closely linked to NIHE's training 
efforts. 
 
6. (U) Vaccine production is NIHE's fourth, and possibly its 
most important, function, Hien explained.  The Institute is 
currently working on developing a human vaccine for a number 
of diseases, including AI.  Finally, NIHE is also 
responsible for bilateral and multilateral cooperation in 
biomedical research with other governments and research 
agencies. 
 
7. (U) Hien provided each delegate with a copy of his 
slides, including a very useful diagram on Vietnam's disease 
surveillance system that illustrated how information flows 
from the many small health stations at the commune level in 
Vietnam all the way up to the Ministry of Health (MOH) at 
the national level. 
 
U.S. TARGETS AI SURVEILLANCE AND HIV/AIDS PATIENTS 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
8. (U) Secretary Leavitt welcomed Hien's remarks, and noted 
that it was critical that the United States and Vietnam meet 
the common challenge of AI together as a member of the world 
health community.  Surveillance is the first line of defense 
in any pandemic, he said, and reiterated that good 
surveillance requires competent, fast and prepared science. 
Achieving that good surveillance, and ensuring the swift 
sharing of epidemiological samples, the Secretary stressed, 
is one of the top goals of the United States and of this 
visit. 
 
9. (U) HIV/AIDS is also an issue of particular concern to 
the United States, the Secretary added.  Vietnam's 
designation as the 15th focus country in the President's 
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) reflects this 
concern.  The United States understand that Vietnamese 
people suffering from HIV/AIDS need access to the 
appropriate, high-quality generic anti-retroviral (ARV) 
drugs to help them combat this disease.  The United States 
wants to work with the GVN to expand the use of generic ARV 
drugs given tentative approval by the HHS Food and Drug 
Administration to provide assistance to the maximum number 
of people possible. 
 
U.S. PRAISE FOR NIHE'S COOPERATION 
---------------------------------- 
 
10. (U) Following HHS Secretary Leavitt's remarks, Dr. Julie 
Gerberding, Director of the HHS Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention (CDC), began her remarks by thanking NIHE for 
the impressive cooperation it has provided HHS/CDC in recent 
months.  She emphasized that NIHE's ability to bring 
epidemiology and laboratory science together to create 
effective interventions was particularly noteworthy, and 
expressed hope that HHS/CDC and NIHE could continue this 
cooperative relationship into the future. 
 
11. (U) Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National 
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) within 
the HHS National Institutes of Health (NIH), echoed HHS/CDC 
Director Gerberding's comments, by noting that he hoped NIHE 
and NIAID could expand their productive collaborations even 
further.  He commended Vietnam's decision to join the 
Emerging Infectious Diseases Clinical Network in Southeast 
Asia, funded by HHS/NIH, and he expressed hope that 
HHS/NIH/NIAID and NIHE could exchange their respective 
lessons learned on the clinical trials for vaccine 
development to provide the safest and fastest results 
possible. 
 
12. (U) After concluding their discussion, NIHE Director 
Hien led HHS Secretary Leavitt and his delegation on a tour 
of NIHE's HIV/AIDS and AI research laboratories.  (COMMENT: 
While Dr. Hien inspires confidence as the most competent and 
professional scientific leader in the Vietnamese Government, 
experts on the U.S. delegation expressed some concerns about 
the NIHE vaccine-production facilities and methodology, 
particularly whether they would meet international standards 
for Good Manufacturing Practices.  Some participants noted 
that they had toured private-sector vaccine-manufacturing 
plants in the past and had never gotten anywhere as close to 
the actual production equipment as NIHE staff allowed the 
delegation.  HHS will be investing USD 500,000 with NIHE to 
help improve the quality of the production of its cell-based 
vaccine against the H5N1 strain of AI.  END COMMENT.) 
 
PARTICIPANTS 
------------ 
 
13. (U) U.S. Participants: 
U.S. HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt 
Dr. Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary of State for Democracy 
and Global Affairs 
U.S. Ambassador Michael Marine 
Kerry Weems, HHS Deputy Chief of Staff 
Dr. Kent Hill, Acting Assistant Administrator for Global 
Health, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) 
Dr. James Butler, Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign 
Agricultural Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) 
Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director, HHS/CDC 
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director, HHS/NIH/NIAID 
Suzy De Francis, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, HHS 
Dr. William Steiger, Special Assistant for International 
Affairs, HHS 
Dr. Vaughan Turekian, Special Assistant to Under Secretary 
Dobriansky 
Allyson Bell, Director of Scheduling and Advance, HHS 
HHS Hanoi Health Attache Marie Sweeney 
HHS/CDC Chief of Party Mitchell Wolfe 
USDA/FAS Hanoi Attache John Wade 
USAID Hanoi Director Dennis Zvinakis 
 
14. (U) Vietnamese Participants: 
Director General of the National Institute of Hygiene and 
Epidemiology (NIHE) Nguyen Tran Hien 
Director of the International Department of Cooperation 
(IDC) at the Ministry of Health (MOH) Tran Trong Hai 
MOH Vice Minister Trinh Quan Huan, NIHE Deputy Director 
Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh 
MOH Deputy Director General of the Department of Preventive 
Medicine Nguyen Van Binh 
NIHE Deputy Director Dang Duc Anh 
NIHE Deputy Director Pham Ngoc Dinh 
NIHE Head of the Department of Molecular Biology and 
Immunology Vu Tan Trao 
NIHE Head of the Department of Epidemiology Nguyen Thuy Hoa 
NIHE Director of VABIOTECH Nguyen Thu Van 
NIHE Head of Networking Coordination Nguyen Anh Dung 
NIHE Head of the Department of Microbiology Nguyen Binh Minh 
NIHE Head of the Department of Training and Research 
Management Ho Minh Ly 
NIHE Head of the Department of Virology Le Thi Quynh Mai 
 
15. (U) International Organization Participants: 
Dr. Margaret Chan, Assistant Director-General for 
Communicable Disease, World Health Organization (WHO) 
Dr. He Changchui, Assistant Director-General, 
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 
Dr. Alejandro Thiermann, Special Representative to the 
Director General of the Terrestrial Animal Health Standards 
Commission, World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) 
 
16. (U) Secretary Leavitt's party has cleared this cable. 
 
BOARDMAN