VZCZCXRO5534
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHMO #1318/01 0851421
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 261421Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8624
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC 4673
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHTA/AMEMBASSY ASTANA 0069
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 0770
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 4210
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RUEHPH/CDC ATLANTA GA
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHDC
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RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 001318 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR G/AIG/KOWALSKI, CLERKIN, AND SES-O/CMS/GISVOLD 
STATE ALSO FOR EUR/RUS, EB/TPP/ATP, EB/TPP/BTA, OES/STC 
USDA FOR OSEC/DAN CAINE, FAS FOR OSTA/MACKE, 
-  WRIGHT, LEIER, ROSENBLUM; OCRA/THOMAS, 
-  FLEMINGS; OA/PATRICK CLERKIN 
HHS FOR SAWYER, STEIGER 
FAS PASS FSIS AND APHIS 
SECDEF FOR OSD 
VIENNA PASS APHIS/TANAKA, BRUSSELS PASS 
- APHIS/FERNANDEZ 
USDOC 3150/DAVID FULTON/MOLLY COSTA/ITA/CS/OIO/EUR 
GENEVA PASS HEALTH ATTACHE 
DEPARTMENT PASS USAID FOR GH/RCS/EE/ROSENBERG 
CDC ATLANTA PASS SEPRL FOR DAVID SUAREZ 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TBIO KFLU KSTH RS
SUBJECT: RUSSIAN DEVELOPMENT AND EXERCISING OF AVIAN AND PANDEMIC 
INFLUENZA RESPONSE PLANS 
 
REFS:  A. STATE 22992 
 
        ¶B. 06 MOSCOW 8690 (AI Action Plan) 
        ¶C. MOSCOW 776 (Recent Outbreaks) 
        ¶D. MOSCOW 778 (Recent Outbreaks) 
   ¶E. MOSCOW 843 (Recent Outbreaks) 
   ¶F. MOSCOW 900 (Recent Outbreaks) 
   ¶G. 06 MOSCOW 10955 (Human AI Vaccine) 
        ¶H. 06 MOSCOW 1041 (AI Simulation Exercise) 
        ¶I. 06 MOSCOW 12876 (G8 Infectious Diseases) 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY. 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  In response to Ref A request, Russia has not yet 
publicly released a comprehensive Avian Influenza (AI) and Pandemic 
Preparedness Plan.  A draft national preparedness plan has been 
submitted to the WHO for review, but needs further refinement.  In 
2006, Russia did approve an action plan to spend nearly $49 million 
combating the further spread of AI, with the Ministries of 
Agriculture and of Health and Social Development receiving the 
lion's share of the funds to produce and purchase vaccines and to 
improve laboratory capacity.  Russia has held several conferences 
and exercises focusing on AI preparedness over the course of the 
last year for both Russian and CIS experts.  The country has been 
steadily working to strengthen AI surveillance, diagnostics, and 
general preparedness; to position the State Research Institute of 
Virology and Biotechnology (Vector) as a regional collaborating flu 
center; and to take a leading role among the CIS countries in 
preparedness, planning and response.  END SUMMARY. 
 
Full Preparedness Plan in Draft Form 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶2. (SBU) The Russian Government has not yet publicly released a 
comprehensive plan for pandemic preparedness.  The Russian Research 
Institute of Influenza (RII) in St. Petersburg developed a draft 
plan in 2006, which it has shared with the WHO and USAID. Several 
regional plans have also been shared with WHO.  The draft plan 
describes the Russian surveillance system and estimates the amount 
of antiviral medicines, vaccines, and hospital facilities that would 
be needed in the event of an epidemic.  The document also discusses 
the development of vaccine and antiviral stockpiles, and disease 
surveillance and outbreak investigation but needs further 
refinement. Multidisciplinary training on flu preparedness and 
response will be carried out by the GOR with WHO assistance in the 
next quarter in the Russian Far East, the North Caucasus and other 
regions where there have been repeated outbreaks in birds. 
 
¶3. (SBU) In August 2006, the government approved an action plan to 
spend $49 million combating the further spread of AI (Ref B).  The 
largest portion of these funds went to the Ministry of Agriculture 
to purchase and produce poultry vaccines, improve AI diagnostics and 
outfit outbreak investigation teams.  The Federal Service for 
Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance also received funding to 
purchase equipment and protective gear for laboratories.  The Agency 
for Health Care and the Federal Service for Consumer Rights 
Protection and Human Well-Being (Rospotrebnadzor) under the Ministry 
of Health and Social Development were given money to stockpile human 
vaccines, disinfectants, and antivirals, and to equip labs and 
 
MOSCOW 00001318  002 OF 003 
 
 
purchase diagnostic kits.  Other entities received modest funding, 
including the Russian Academy of Sciences to monitor and map bird 
migration and identify potential species carrying AI, and the 
Ministry of Defense to equip and improve diagnostics at the 
ministry's virology research center and its mobile units. 
 
March 2007 Pandemic Preparedness Conference 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) Russia hosted an international Influenza Conference entitled 
"Preparedness for an Influenza Pandemic: An International Outlook," 
in St. Petersburg March 15-17, at which Russian researchers 
presented the country's response to the most recent AI outbreaks in 
the Moscow region among poultry (Refs C-F).  U.S. experts from the 
CDC and European researchers also presented analyses of recent human 
cases and bird outbreaks around the world.  More than 100 
participants attended the conference, including representatives from 
many of the CIS countries (Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, 
Krygyzstan, and Tajikistan). 
 
General Preparedness Progress in 2006 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (U) In 2006, Russia became a member of the International 
Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza.  The country launched a 
national poultry vaccination program and greatly expanded its human 
influenza vaccination program, targeting 22 million people (15.4 
percent of the population).  Russia has successfully stamped out 
nearly 150 outbreaks of AI (sitreps reporting on these outbreaks are 
posted on the embassy's classified website: 
www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/moscow/).  The CDC and the USDA Southeast 
Poultry Research Laboratory also forged closer ties in AI research 
with Vector.  Russia began developing and conducting clinical trials 
on a human AI vaccine (Ref G).  In February 2006, Russia's Emergency 
Services Ministry held a series of exercises simulating AI 
outbreaks, in which over 1,500 Russians participated (Ref H). 
 
Influenza Surveillance Strengthened 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) The Russian Government has purchased 15 real-time PCR 
machines and 64 fluorescent machines to perform influenza 
diagnostics.  Some 15 more machines are being purchased with funding 
from the CDC for use in Russia.  The Central Research Institute of 
Epidemiology is currently producing test kits for influenza 
diagnostics and is conducting lab trainings for lab specialists from 
all regions. 
 
¶7. (U) Russia has two federal WHO collaborating centers:  the 
Research Institute of Influenza (RII) in St. Petersburg and the 
Center of Influenza Epidemiology and Ecology at the Ivanovsky 
Institute of Virology in Moscow.  These institutes receive weekly 
data on respiratory diseases incidence from a total of 54 regions of 
Russia and in turn provide weekly reports to Rospotrebnadzor, WHO, 
WHO collaborating centers, and regional labs.  These centers also 
receive and analyze isolates from the above regions.  Some 49 
regions linked to the RII have a computer-based system of 
epidemiological surveillance, and 20 Russian labs have the capacity 
 
MOSCOW 00001318  003 OF 003 
 
 
for virus isolation in cell culture.  Another 40 labs can perform 
direct immunofluorescent assays, and many labs can identify 
rimantadin and oseltamavir (Tamiflu) resistance. 
 
¶8. (U) A USAID/WHO program reached another 18 labs which have been 
added to the influenza surveillance network, bringing the total 
number to 72.  Curriculum and training materials on molecular 
diagnostics of H5N1 and recommendations for establishing and 
maintaining the laboratory network have been developed with support 
from WHO through a USAID grant.  Proficiency testing and validation 
of locally produced H5 diagnostic tests have been successfully 
completed in collaboration with WHO. 
 
Russia's Leading AI Preparedness Role within the CIS 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶9. (U) At the St. Petersburg G8 Summit last July, the G8 leaders 
supported Russia's taking a leading role within the CIS on pandemic 
preparedness.  Russia is spending $45 million to establish Vector as 
a regional collaborating center for AI and to equip a network of 26 
other labs.  Vector has also begun the process of establishing 
itself as a WHO collaborating center for influenza (Ref I).  Four 
leading Russian influenza experts visited the WHO collaborating 
Center at CDC Atlanta in January 2007, and will soon visit a similar 
center in the UK. 
 
¶10. (U) Russia hosted a two-day CIS Conference on Joint AI 
Prevention in November 2006 in Novosibirsk.  All CIS countries 
except Georgia participated.  At the meeting, the CIS countries 
adopted a joint action plan on pandemic preparedness for 2006-2009. 
They also endorsed  establishing Vector as a WHO influenza 
collaborating center, noting that it would increase efficiency and 
reduce the cost of anti-epidemic activities.  (The complete text of 
the conference resolution is available in English through Open 
Source as document CEP20061219346001, and is available in Russian on 
the Rospotrebnadzor website:  www.rospotrebnadzor.ru.) 
 
BURNS