R 100040Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY ULAANBAATAR
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 2548
INFO AMEMBASSY SEOUL 
AMEMBASSY LONDON 
AMEMBASSY MANILA 
AMEMBASSY BEIJING 
AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 
AMEMBASSY TOKYO 
AMCONSUL SHENYANG 
AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK 
AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 
MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS ULAANBAATAR 000500 
 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: ECON MG
SUBJECT: U.S. SUPPORT FOR FIGHTING FLU IN MONGOLIA 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY:  Mongolia's recent national influenza workshop 
demonstrated that U.S. support for both a Mongolian influenza 
surveillance network and an assessment of the country's pandemic 
readiness is helping the government address several needs.  On the 
surveillance front, U.S. funding has allowed the country to 
establish critical monitoring centers to monitor the flu situation 
broadly.  A U.S.-supported assessment of the country's readiness has 
also shown that while Mongolia has made strides in monitoring and 
battling influenza additional resources are needed to address some 
shortfalls.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (U) The October 10-11 Fourth National Influenza Workshop 
highlighted the ongoing joint U.S.-Mongolian "Influenza Surveillance 
Network", but also addressed the critical issue of the country's 
influenza pandemic readiness, based in part on an assessment 
supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). 
Specifically, the workshop included extensive discussion on 
influenza pandemic preparedness planning (IPPP) at the family 
hospital level and ways to assess local and provincial 
preparedness. 
 
¶3. (U) The workshop featured 250 participants, including 
representatives from the World Bank, UNICEF, UN Development Program, 
CDC, Japanese National Institute of Infectious Disease (NIID), and 
Mongolian government organizations.  The DCM, along with the 
Mongolian Minister of Health and the head of the Mongolian National 
Center for Communicable Diseases, provided opening remarks.  Three 
visiting CDC officials also presented during the two-day workshop. 
 
¶4. (U) The U.S.-supported Influenza Surveillance Network began in 
2004 with funding from the CDC.  Through September 2008, the project 
has spent USD 1.5 million to establish 79 Influenza Sentinel 
Surveillance Sites (ISSS) in five regions across Mongolia and in its 
three biggest cities.  The project now covers 55 percent of the 
country's territory and 62 percent of the population.  All ISSS 
locations provide daily reports on influenza and influenza-like 
illnesses (ILI), and weekly reports on the morbidity and mortality 
of locally-collected specimens.  Thanks to these sites, in the 
one-year period from September 2006 to September 2007, the Mongolian 
Influenza Virology Laboratory collected and processed 7,244 
nasopharyngeal samples from the patients with ILI in 79 ISSS. 
 
¶5. (U) With additional CDC support, in April 2008 Mongolia conducted 
an Influenza Pandemic Preparedness and Planning Assessment.  The 
assessment involved members of the technical working group of 
National Coordinating Committee on Avian Influenza and Pandemic 
Influenza.  The final report of the assessment, presented at the 
workshop, determined that on a scale of zero to three (three being 
best), Mongolia averaged 1.38 in the separate assessment areas: 
country plan, research and use of findings, communications, 
epidemiologic capability, laboratory capability, routine influenza 
surveillance, national respiratory disease surveillance report, 
outbreak response, resources for containment, community-based 
interventions, infection control, and health sector pandemic 
response. 
 
¶6. (U) Observers note that this result suggests that Mongolian 
influenza pandemic preparedness is considered at a moderate level. 
The weakest points are the lack of resources for containment and for 
health sector pandemic response.  The U.S.-backed IPPP assessment 
was therefore considered a useful tool for targeting improvements of 
Mongolia's future plans and actions.  Equally important to Mongolia 
will be making similar assessments at the sub-national level to 
obtain more efficient results. 
 
HILL