VZCZCXRO0817
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB
DE RUEHHI #2263/01 2480905
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 050905Z SEP 06
FM AMEMBASSY HANOI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3275
INFO RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY PRIORITY 1742
RUEHZS/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL PRIORITY 2980
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 5569
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG PRIORITY 0979
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU PRIORITY 0718
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU PRIORITY 0257
RUEHSUN/USUN ROME IT PRIORITY
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI PRIORITY 1401
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHPH/CDC ATLANTA GA PRIORITY
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEHRC/USDA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC//USDP/ISA/AP// PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CJCS WASHINGTON DC//J2/J3/J5//
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC//DHO-3//
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI//J00/J2/J3/J5//
RHEFAFM/DIRAFMIC FT DETRICK MD//MA-1A//

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HANOI 002263 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR G, CA/OCS/ACS/EAP, EAP/EX, EAP/MLS, EAP/EP, INR, OES/STC 
(PBATES), OES/IHA (DSINGER AND NCOMELLA), AND MED 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR ANE AND GH (DCARROLL, ACLEMENTS AND 
CJENNINGS) 
STATE PASS TO USTR (EBRYAN) 
STATE PASS TO HHS/OGHA (WSTIEGER, EELVANDER AND ABHAT) 
USDA PASS TO APHIS 
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE FOR OSD/ISA/AP (LSTERN) 
BANGKOK FOR RMO, CDC, USAID (JMACARTHUR AND MBRADY) 
ROME FOR FAO 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TBIO KFLU AMED AMGT CASC EAGR PINR SOCI VM
SUBJECT: VIETNAM - SEPTEMBER 1 AVIAN INFLUENZA REPORT 
 
HANOI 00002263  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
REF: HANOI 2114 AND PREVIOUS 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary.  There have been no reported human AI cases and no 
AI outbreak activity in poultry to date this year in Vietnam. 
Another 45 ducks in a household in the Mekong Delta's Ben Tre 
Province tested positive for carrying H5N1 and were subsequently 
culled.  A Government of Vietnam (GVN) official stated that the 
government has spent approximately VND 100 billion (US$ 6.25 
million) on poultry vaccines and has vaccinated 135 million poultry. 
 On August 22, 2006 Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung sent an urgent 
cable to the Chairmen of People's Committees in provinces and cities 
under the direct control of the Central Government underscoring the 
danger of avian flu and of H5N1 outbreaks among humans.  Minister of 
Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat has ordered that all 
ducks hatched before September 1 be raised in fenced-in farms and be 
vaccinated against H5N1; all ducks hatched after September 1 will be 
destroyed under executive order.   However, a similar ban last year 
was largely ignored by farmers.  A three-person AFRIMS team visited 
Embassy Hanoi and ConGen HCMC to support Mission Vietnam's's effort 
to collect data on patients with influenza-like symptoms from a 
paper-based process to a computer-base, web-accessible application. 
If scaled-up and rolled out, the Access database would allow STATE 
MED to know immediately, on a regional scale, what Embassy personnel 
have been infected, receiving treatment, etc., during a pandemic 
scenario.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (U) There have been no reported human AI cases and no AI 
outbreak activity in poultry to date this year in Vietnam.  State 
owned press has reported that another 45 ducks in a household in 
Thanh Phu town of Thanh Phu district in the Mekong Delta's Ben Tre 
Province have been  found to be H5 positive, according to Mr. Mai 
Van Hiep, head of the provincial animal health department.  HCMC 
ConGen EconOff found that the infected ducks had been vaccinated in 
July. The veterinary station in Thanh Phu reported culling the 
flock, at the same time strengthening supervision and getting 
medical samples for the testing for H5N1 avian virus.  According to 
Vietnam News dated August 31, animal health authorities have 
confirmed that two ducks in Hanoi have tested positive for the H5 
virus.  In HCMC, animal health authorities culled 53 storks at Suoi 
Tien theme park following random tests that indicated the birds were 
carriers of the H5 strain. 
 
¶3.  (U) Saigon Times dated September 1 quoted Mr. Dong Manh Hoa, 
head of the Animal Health Department for southern provinces, saying 
that the proportion of vaccinated chicken and waterfowls capable of 
deterring the H5N1 virus was 75 percent this year, some five 
percentage points lower than a year ago, which he believes is still 
sufficient to deter a severe outbreak in poultry.  According to Mr. 
Hoa, the GVN has spent approximately VND 100 billion (US$ 6.25 
million) on poultry vaccines and has vaccinated 135 million poultry. 
 Mr. Hoa reiterated he believes a deterrence level of 75 percent is 
high enough to prevent outbreaks from developing into a full-scale 
epidemic in poultry.  (Note: While the GVN sets the minimum 
deterrence level for poultry at 70 percent, lower antibody rates for 
ducks, the primary vector for AI, represents a major gap in the 
GVN's vaccination campaign.  Other waterfowl, such as ducks, may 
require more frequent vaccination than the current twice yearly 
schedule. End Note.) 
 
¶4.  (U) On August 22, 2006, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung sent an 
 
HANOI 00002263  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
urgent cable to People's Committee Chairmen of centrally 
administered cities concerning the danger of H5N1 outbreaks in 
humans. The main content of the cable is as follows: "In some 
neighboring countries, especially in the southwest border, the avian 
influenza has re-occurred and the A (H5N1) flu has been in a very 
serious and complicated situation, causing a danger of the 
recurrence of an outbreak in Vietnam.  What should be done 
immediately includes: 1) Animal health, public health, customs, 
transport and border military forces should closely coordinate with 
the Steering Committee for Fighting Smuggling and Trade Fraudulence 
and local administrations to strictly control border gates, stop the 
import of poultry and poultry products from countries having 
outbreaks and impose serious sanctions on the illegal imports; and 
2) Measures should be taken as directed by the Instructions by the 
Prime Minister on August 8, 2006 on preventing and fighting AI and 
H5N1 influenza, not letting outbreaks to expand to humans." 
 
¶5.  (U) State-owned newspapers reported on August 30 that Minister 
of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat has ordered that 
all ducks hatched before September 1 be raised in fenced-in farms 
and be vaccinated against H5N1.  Those hatched after September 1 
must be destroyed, according to a GVN executive order.  Despite the 
order, even the state-owned press admitted that "a similar ban (last 
year) on hatching and raising waterfowl was largely ignored by 
farmers (and that) it's unclear how the government would enforce the 
order this time."   Nguyen Dang Vang, Director of MARD's Animal 
Breeding Department, said there are 220 million poultry in Vietnam 
as of April 2006, including 50 million ducks and eight million 
geese. 
 
¶6.  (U) According to state-owned media, the National Steering 
Committee on Avian Influenza Prevention has instructed local 
governments to build "lines of defense" and ban breeding of 
waterfowl starting September 1st.  The Minister of Agriculture and 
Rural Development, Cao Duc Phat, decreed at a conference in Hanoi 
that in order to prevent bird flu outbreaks, localities, especially 
in the northern border provinces, should focus on three lines of 
defense:  controlling poultry trafficking, preventing the transport 
of infected birds, and tightening poultry farming norms. 
 
¶7.  (U) State-owned press reported on August 30 that the Ministry of 
Health (MoH) has asked provincial and municipal health departments 
across Vietnam to set up typeA/H5N1 mobile prevention teams with 
sufficient equipment to readily cope with possible H5N1 epidemics. 
The MOH requested that its departments quickly develop necessary 
plans to prevent a possible outbreak of typeA/H5N1 among humans and 
closely coordinate village-level surveillance with animal health 
authorities.  The MOH also ordered the use of Cloramin B for 
sterilizing and disinfecting "epidemic hotspots." 
 
¶8.  (SBU) A three-person AFRIMS team headed by Lt. Col. Rodney 
Coldren MD, MPH, visited Embassy Hanoi and ConGen HCMC to support 
Mission Vietnam's efforts to collect data on patients with 
influenza-like symptoms, which is required from STATE MED. The team 
is proposing an upgrade from a paper-based process to a 
computer-base, web-accessible application.  If scaled-up and rolled 
out, the Access database would allow STATE MED to know immediately, 
on a regional scale, what Embassy personnel have been infected, 
receiving treatment, etc. during a pandemic scenario. 
 
¶9.  (U) As of September 1, 2006: 
 
 
HANOI 00002263  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
-- No human AI deaths since October 29, 2005 
-- No human AI cases since November 14, 2005 
-- No AI outbreaks in poultry since the last reported incident on 
December 17, 2005 in Cao Bang Province 
 
MARINE