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 
 
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 
 
BEIJING 00000065  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
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 
 
BEIJING 00000065  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
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.