VZCZCXRO6689
RR RUEHCN RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHPB
DE RUEHGZ #9084/01 0890848
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 300848Z MAR 06
FM AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2484
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RUEAWJL/DOJ WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHINGTON DC
RUEAHLC/HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHINGTON DC
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHDC
RUEHPH/CDC ATLANTA GA
RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GUANGZHOU 009084 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM 
STATE PLEASE PASS NIH 
USDOC FOR 4420/ITA/MAC/MCQUEEN, CELICO, DAS LEVINE 
STATE PASS USTR 
USPACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KFLU TBIO EAGR PGOV CH
SUBJECT:  AI Update:  Guangdong Authorities Coming Clean? 
 
Ref:  A) GUANGZHOU 6294, B) GUANGZHOU 8517 
 
(U) THIS DOCUMENT IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  PLEASE 
PROTECT ACCORDINGLY.  NOT FOR RELEASE OUTSIDE U.S. 
GOVERNMENT CHANNELS.  NOT FOR INTERNET PUBLICATION. 
 
¶1. SUMMARY:  Guangdong provincial health and veterinary 
officials are showing increased levels of openness and 
cooperation.  On March 29, officials hosted a private 
information meeting for Guangzhou foreign consulates about 
the March 2 human avian influenza (AI) death and subsequent 
health policies.  The initiative to hold such an event and 
Chinese inter-agency cooperation are both good signs. 
However, questions remain about the general AI threat level 
and potential future transparency.  END SUMMARY. 
 
Meet the Press:  Cantonese Style 
-------------------------------- 
¶2.  On March 2, Guangdong province had its first confirmed 
human AI death (reftel A).  On March 4, Guangzhou Consulates 
learned about the case.  On March 29, Guangdong officials 
hosted a private "press conference" for the Guangzhou 
foreign consulates.  The event was unique in terms of the 
attempt at openness and inter-agency cooperation among 
Chinese government officials.  The event also builds on 
previous breakthroughs by Post, namely a March 23 planning 
meeting for a possible digital video conference (DVC) 
between Guangdong health and agricultural officials and 
relevant U.S. medical officials housed at Embassy Bangkok 
(reftel B).  The March 29 special meeting included officials 
from the Guangdong Veterinary Station of Epidemic Prevention 
and Supervision, the Guangdong Health Department, and the 
Guangdong Center of Disease Control (CDC).  Officials from 
about half of Guangzhou's 23 consulates were in attendance. 
 
¶3.  The Guangdong officials conveyed that they are taking 
the recent human death case very seriously and seeking to 
improve their policies.  Officials are working in six 
different ways to improve Guangdong's prevention and 
response mechanisms, including: 
  ¶1.   Alerting and information abilities 
¶2.   Technical and personnel capabilities 
¶3.   Vaccination storage materials and implementation 
¶4.   Cooperation with all relevant departments 
¶5.   Cooperation with other regions (i.e., Hong Kong, Macau) 
¶6.   Public awareness 
 
Background on Guangdong Poultry and Human Threat 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
¶4.  Mr. Yu Yedong of the Guangdong Veterinary Station began 
the meeting describing Guangdong's potential source for AI 
and the government reaction before and after the March 2 
human case.  Guangdong is China's largest source of poultry. 
In 2005 the province was estimated to have 1.36 billion 
poultry, or approximately one bird for each PRC citizen, 
accounting for 52.3 percent of China's overall poultry 
population. 
 
¶5.  Yu next described the events surrounding Guangdong's 
only confirmed human AI death.  On March 2, a 30-year old 
Guangzhou native (surnamed Lao) died (reftel A).  On March 
4, two national laboratories independently confirmed the 
case was AI and the Ministry of Health announced the results 
to the provincial authorities.  On March 3, the provincial 
health authorities enacted their contingency plan to contain 
AI.  All close contacts of Mr. Lao (124 people) were 
quarantined, and special hospitals in Guangdong were put on 
"tier-three alert".  On March 6, Hong Kong and Macau health 
experts met with equivalent Guangdong officials.  Throughout 
the ordeal, World Health Organization officials were never 
contacted.  The tier-three alert level was recalled on March 
¶14. 
 
Scorecard of Guangdong Implementation Success 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
GUANGZHOU 00009084  002 OF 003 
 
 
¶6.  The Guangdong officials described in some detail how 
they are improving policies in the six aforementioned areas. 
1) Alert and information abilities:  Since 2004, Guangdong 
Party Secretary Zhang Dejiang and Guangdong Governor Huang 
Huahua have placed Guangdong on "high alert" and asked all 
departments to implement relevant measures at the three main 
levels of governance:  provincial, municipal and county.  In 
October 2005, Guangdong began creating 43 provincial 
monitoring stations, which provide advance information on 
the AI situation.  (When asked by PolOff about the 
capabilities of these stations, the officials provided only 
a limited answer.  In terms of staffing, some stations like 
Guangzhou have 130 staff, Shenzhen has around 60.  Other 
cities have only 10-20 people and in the countryside the 
stations are even smaller.). 
 
¶7.  2) Technical and personnel materials:  Last year the 
province invested 200 million RMB ($250,000) in AI programs 
and this year has already spent 8.5 million RMB ($1.06 
million) on vaccination programs.  Additionally, health 
officials have received special training on how to manage AI 
cases. 
 
¶8.  3) Vaccination storage materials and implementation: 
Over 1.2 billion poultry have been vaccinated (98 percent of 
the province's poultry) using a domestic Chinese 
vaccination.  Last year the veterinary department took 
190,000 blood samples and found their vaccination to be 95 
percent effective.  After 14 days the birds develop a strong 
immunity to the disease.  Emergency materials for health 
personnel have also increased, including increasing stocks 
of Tamiflu. 
 
¶9.  4) Cooperation with all relevant agencies:  The 
government has increased exchanges with other departments, 
including broadening cooperation with the Department of 
Education; Department of Transportation; Department of 
Forestry (to collect dead birds for lab tests) and the South 
China Endangered Species Center (to monitor migratory 
birds). 
 
¶10.  5) Cooperation with other regions:  Guangdong CDC and 
public health officials have had multiple meetings with Hong 
Kong and Macanese officials on how to handle a public health 
emergency. 
 
¶11.  6) Public Awareness:  The Guangdong government has 
increased the amount of public "propaganda".  There have 
been more television interviews with doctors than during 
SARS, and AI informational signs now hang in most hospitals 
and medical centers. 
 
Whodunnit?:  Mr. Lao's Death Remains A Mystery 
--------------------------------------------- - 
¶12.  Guangdong has over half of China's poultry population 
and one confirmed human case, yet no confirmed poultry 
deaths in the past two years.  The burning question at the 
meeting was:  "What was the source of the human death?"  The 
officials said they still do not know the source but assumed 
it came from one of the 12 marketplaces in which Lao had 
spent significant time.  Though Yu of the Veterinary Station 
believed both future poultry outbreaks and repeated human 
infections were possible, he ruled out human-to-human 
outbreaks in the short term. 
 
Transparency Issues 
------------------- 
¶13.  PolOff asked specifically about the rules of reporting 
suspected and confirmed AI cases.  All final confirmation of 
AI cases remains with the Ministry of Health in Beijing, 
requiring two separate labs to confirm a death.  Information 
of an AI death can only be released to the public after this 
confirmation.  However, Guangdong authorities may release 
information on any suspected cases when they choose.  The 
Guangdong officials agreed to consider sending information 
 
GUANGZHOU 00009084  003 OF 003 
 
 
via e-mail instead of the slower diplomatic note process. 
The former method was used during some of the worst days of 
SARS.  (In the recent human AI case, Lao was suspected of 
having AI on March 2, but the information was not released 
until March 4). 
 
Comment: Improvement and Continuing Problems 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶14.  The unspoken message from this special meeting was 
obvious:  Guangdong does not want another SARS.  It is 
believed Guangzhou city was the source of the SARS outbreak, 
during which the provincial government was criticized for 
apathy, cover-up and economic downturn.  At the moment, it 
is unclear whether the increased transparency resulted from 
foreign or domestic pressure.  In terms of influencing the 
Guangdong medical response, Post will continue to increase 
contact with officials through methods such as the planned 
digital video conference.  However, because of their access 
to internal Guangdong meetings, Hong Kong officials also 
remain an important conduit for expressing U.S. concern. 
Overall, Guangdong officials should be praised for hosting 
the meeting and working with other government departments. 
However, they still seem reluctant to inform the public of 
suspected cases and working with outside groups such as the 
WHO and USG. 
 
DONG