VZCZCXRO2176
PP RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMA RUEHMR RUEHPA
DE RUEHUJA #1412/01 1591322
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 081322Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY ABUJA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5969
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHDC
RHFMISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUEHRN/USMISSION UN ROME 0005
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC//USDP/ASD-HD//
RUEHPH/CDC ATLANTA GA
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ABUJA 001412 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
USDA FOR FAS/OA, FAS/DLP, FAS/ICD AND FAS/ITP 
USDA FOR APHIS 
USDA FOR WAYNE MOLSTAD/OSEC 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TBIO KFLU EAID AMED EAGR NI AVIANFLU
SUBJECT: JUNE 8 NIGERIA AVIAN FLU UPDATE -- GON LOSES FOCUS 
 
REF:  ABUJA 1387 
 
ABUJA 00001412  001.2 OF 003 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  The GON's high-level meetings on AI have 
declined to negligible levels although are set to increase. 
The ministers of health, agriculture, and information have 
met once in 10 weeks, and there are considerable tensions 
between the Ministries of Health and Agriculture.  The 
thrice-weekly meeting of the three ministries' technical 
experts and foreign donors last week was reduced to one per 
week.  The low number of meetings has limited foreign 
donors' opportunities to try to influence and assist the 
GON's efforts against AI.  The high-level AI Steering 
Committee has invited all donors to a meeting June 14, 
however.  MOA veterinarians have demanded fees from poultry 
farmers for some AI-related services.  The French 
veterinarian assigned to the MOA resigned out of frustration 
with the GON's inaction against AI.  The U.S. Mission and 
foreign donors met June 5 with the health minister, who 
pledged to reinvigorate Nigeria's efforts.  Western health 
specialists increasingly believe that AI probably has killed 
some Nigerians and that only the severe weakness of the 
country's disease-surveillance system precludes 
confirmation.  End summary. 
 
GON Meetings on the Avian Flu Decrease 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The Government of Nigeria's (GON) high-level 
meetings on the avian influenza (AI) have declined to 
negligible levels although they are set to increase.  The 
country's AI Interministerial Committee, composed of the 
ministers of health, agriculture, and information as well as 
foreign donors, has met once in 10 weeks, in part because of 
the health minister's frequent foreign travel -- although 
the health minister is Nigeria's designated lead official on 
AI and chairman of the Interministerial Committee. 
Nigeria's AI Technical Committee, comprised of the three 
ministries' technical experts and foreign donors, last week 
decreased its thrice-weekly meetings to one per week.  Weeks 
after its move to a new location, the GON's AI Crisis 
Management Center still does not have a working telephone 
number.  The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) often does not 
attend the Technical Committee meetings, reflecting the 
considerable tensions with the Ministry of Health, 
especially over procedures for releasing information on AI 
outbreaks.  The low number of meetings has limited foreign 
donors' opportunities to influence and assist the GON's 
efforts against AI.  The high-level AI Steering Committee 
has invited all donors to a meeting on June 14, however, 
which will allow a broader discussion of concerns.  The 
Charge will head the U.S. group attending the meeting. 
 
¶3. (SBU) According to an official with the UK's Department 
for International Development (DFID), the health minister 
believed the AI Crisis Management Center's move from the 
Presidential Villa reflected the government's downgrading of 
AI's importance.  The DFID official said May 31 that Nigeria 
had received enough money to use against AI but was not 
employing this properly.  (Comment:  Nigeria has not spent 
any of the $12.2 million World Bank AI line of credit 
available, according to the Bank, since at least March 20. 
End comment.)  The DFID official said the health minister 
acknowledged "nothing gets done" while the minister was out 
of the country.  The UK official urged foreign donors to 
bear in mind the pressures on the health minister to address 
various human diseases simultaneously. 
 
Officials charge farmers for some AI veterinary services 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Reports indicate that MOA veterinarians have 
demanded fees from poultry farmers for some AI-related 
services.  This has occurred at least partially because at 
the state level, veterinary field officers do not have the 
funds to carry out detection or disposal activities.  A GON 
official said on May 22 that a Kano poultry farmer with 
infected birds did not want to ask for the government's 
assistance because she was charged for H5N1 testing, as well 
as for dead birds' removal.  A UN Food and Agriculture 
 
ABUJA 00001412  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
Organization (FAO) official said on June 6 that the Kano 
farmer was not charged for H5N1 testing but did have to 
provide laborers to remove the birds.  An FAO official said 
May 23 that poultry farmers in Bauchi State had to pay the 
cost of laborers' digging pits to bury dead birds -- after 
already having suffered the loss of their birds. 
International donors are highly concerned that these fees 
discourage poultry farmers from reporting suspected 
outbreaks of AI. 
 
¶5. (U) Neither the GON nor Nigerian state governments have 
made a formal request to foreign donors for help in covering 
the cost of AI field operations.  An FAO official said the 
MOA should be able to fund the cost of AI fieldwork because 
the ministry has received donor aid for this purpose. 
 
PACE veterinarian resigns in frustration 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) An FAO official and the French Government/European 
Union veterinarian assigned to the MOA under the ministry's 
Pan-African Program for the Control of Epizootics (PACE) 
component said May 23 that Nigeria had in Abuja a "large 
number" of sets of personal protective equipment still not 
shipped to the field.  The PACE veterinarian left Nigeria 
two weeks ago out of frustration with the GON's inaction 
against AI, though his contract called for him to serve at 
the MOA until November.  Shortly before the veterinarian's 
departure, he asserted only two people at the MOA "know what 
is going on" with AI. 
 
Health minister, foreign donors meet June 5 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Minister of Health Eyitayo Lambo met on June 5 with 
the USAID/Abuja mission director, the chief of the Centers 
for Disease Control (CDC)/Abuja, and representatives of the 
World Bank, the World Health Organization, the FAO, the UN 
Children's Fund, the UN Development Program, and DFID.  The 
foreign donors urged the health minister to reenergize the 
GON's AI efforts and reviewed with him the joint UN-CDC 
report "Avian Influenza in Nigeria."  The report, issued on 
April 20, examined the first three months of AI in Nigeria 
and made recommendations for combating AI in the next three 
months -- but Lambo read the report only recently.  The 
health minister expressed support for the report's 
recommendations, acknowledged the GON's response to AI had 
been sluggish, and pledged to reinvigorate Nigeria's 
efforts.  He said he would meet May 14 with the ministers of 
agriculture and information, and would do so weekly. 
(Comment:  The health minister's pledge of weekly meetings 
may be too ambitious because of demands on his time, and 
because the Ministries of Information and especially 
Agriculture may not cooperate in holding weekly meetings. 
End comment.) 
 
¶8. (SBU) The donors said Nigeria's AI efforts need to be 
carried out predominantly at the state level to be 
effective.  The DFID representative detailed the need for a 
strong disease-surveillance system, an improved public- 
information campaign, and for a prompt compensation plan for 
poultry farmers.  The health minister agreed to reexamine 
the government's policy on compensation.  The World Bank and 
Lambo expressed some disagreement over the Bank's funding to 
combat AI.  The Bank's representative said the GON still 
needed to provide a detailed plan for using this money, 
while Lambo said the bank continually attached to these 
funds additional requirements for information.  The two 
sides agreed the bank would release to Nigeria $12.2 million 
on June 11 and a $50 million credit in the following week. 
 
AI likely has killed Nigerians 
------------------------------ 
 
¶9. (SBU) Western health specialists serving in Nigeria 
increasingly believe that AI probably has resulted in the 
deaths of some Nigerians -- and that only the severe 
weakness of the country's disease-surveillance system 
 
ABUJA 00001412  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
precludes the identification and confirmation of these 
deaths.  The U.S. Mission Abuja agrees that AI more likely 
than not has exacted a human toll in Nigeria. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) It is uncertain whether the health minister will 
succeed in refocusing the GON against the avian flu.  The 
assurances by Lambo are similar to those that he and other 
ministers have given foreign donors since AI was diagnosed 
in Nigeria in February.  The health minister also faces 
other major priorities, including responding to significant 
international criticism of Nigeria over polio's resurgence 
and the loss of Global Fund grants for AIDS, Malaria and TB. 
Four months after the avian flu was diagnosed in Nigeria, 
elements of the GON are deciding issues and strategies that 
should have been resolved months ago.  Relations between the 
Ministries of Health and Agriculture are poor, and despite 
the efforts of the United Nations/Abuja and foreign donors, 
the GON has lost its momentum against AI.  The UN 
organizations and foreign donors regularly urge more action 
from the GON, but not surprisingly, their appeals and 
efforts cannot compel action.  The GON's political will is 
unfocused, with institutional weaknesses extending far down 
government organizations and ministries.  Nonetheless, it 
appears donor concerns are beginning to sink in, and next 
week's Steering Committee meeting will provide another 
opportunity for donors to reemphasize the continuing 
importance of addressing AI. 
FUREY