VZCZCXYZ0047
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDG #0508 0671807
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 081807Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7615

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000508 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TBIO KFLU KSTH DR
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: THE DEVELOPMENT AND EXERCISING 
OF AVIAN AND PANDEMIC RESPONSE PLANS 
 
REF: STATE 22992 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary.  Avian influenza (AI) preparedness is a 
concern for the Dominican Republic.  According to Embassy 
sources, the country has conducted very few AI response 
exercises.  Currently only the Ministry of Agriculture has 
completed its response plan and has sponsored exercises, 
focused mainly on responding to animal outbreaks.  To date, 
no preparedness exercises have been conducted to evaluate the 
Dominican response to a pathogenic H5N1 infecting a human in 
the Dominican Republic, without Human-to-Human (H-2-H) 
transmission, or a sustained H-2-H pathogenic H5N1 
transmission in the Dominican Republic.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (U) The country has a national Influenza Commission that 
includes the Ministries of Health, Agriculture, Education and 
Tourism, Civil Defense and the private sector.  The person in 
charge of coordinating this commission is Dr. Elizabeth 
Gomez, Director of the Epidemiology Department at the 
Ministry of Health and head of a Pan American Health 
Organization (PAHO) and a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) 
financed project. 
 
¶3.  (U) At the end of October 2006, health and agriculture 
officers from Haiti and Central America conducted an 
emergency preparedness seminar hosted by the Dominican 
Ministry of Agriculture.  This seminar included bio-security 
plans for large scale poultry farms and practical sessions on 
depopulation and disinfection given by APHIS officials. 
 
¶4.  (U) The Ministry of Health, with the support of PAHO and 
the CDC, started a one-year project to strengthen the 
capacity of a rapid reply to pandemic and avian influenza in 
the Dominican Republic.  In November 2006, a CDC team based 
in Guatemala visited the Dominican Republic to initiate the 
project to strengthen the capacity for the detection, 
surveillance, and rapid response to the avian influenza. 
This program, working in coordination with PAHO, has hired 
one epidemiologist who is currently completing the influenza 
preparedness plan and its protocols for the Dominican 
Republic.  A meeting to be held this month in Costa Rica 
(March 9) will discuss the protocols with their Central 
American colleagues.  The plan is expected to be completed in 
April. In May 2007 a drill will be held to test the country's 
avian influenza preparedness; Dominican personnel trained in 
November 2006 in Guatemala are expected to be training local 
leaders in preparation for this drill. 
 
¶5.  (U) USAID/Washington holds monthly teleconferences with 
all the countries it supports in the Latin America and 
Caribbean (LAC) region to share information, get technical 
updates, report on particular situations, and maintain a 
coordination mechanism for surveillance and rapid regional 
response in case of an outbreak or epidemic.  A website has 
been set up for information sharing.  The contact person in 
USAID/Washington for this LAC teleconference is Peg Marshal. 
 
¶6.  (U) PAHO is very active in the Dominican Republic and has 
trained its technicians in diagnostic techniques for 
influenza viruses in humans.  Additionally, the Japanese 
government has created the "Center for Medical Education and 
Friendship for Japanese and Dominicans" (CEMA DOJA).  It has 
the potential to be a very robust infectious disease 
surveillance center, but lacks the needed reagents to sustain 
surveillance measures.  The Ministry of Agriculture has 
another laboratory prepared to work with animal cases. 
 
¶7. (U) This report and extensive other material can be 
consulted on our SIPRNET site, 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo/  
HERTELL