VZCZCXRO8484
PP RUEHAST RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD RUEHTM RUEHTRO
DE RUEHUL #0542/01 0930721
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 030721Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY SEOUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3893
INFO RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE 0005
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SEOUL 000542 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR OES/IHB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TBIO PREL KS
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR PARTICIPATES IN WORLD TUBERCULOSIS DAY 
COMMEMORATION, CITES U.S.-KOREA COOPERATION ON TB 
 
REF: STATE 17303 
 
¶1.  Summary:   On March 24, Ambassador joined with Korean 
Health Minister Jeon Jae-hee in Korea's main World TB Day 
event to commend the work done over the years by the Korea 
National Tuberculosis Association (KNTA).  The Ambassador was 
the only foreign dignitary to participate in the 
commemoration, reflecting the long history of the United 
States and Korea working together to combat the disease.  The 
Ambassador, in her remarks in Korean at the ceremony, noted 
that U.S.-Korean efforts to fight tuberculosis began with 
Peace Corps volunteers posted to rural clinics and now 
includes modern research at the joint International 
Tuberculosis Research Center (ITRC) to develop new TB 
medications.  She also highlighted other USG activities such 
as support for the U.S. Global Fund. 
 
¶2.  Three weeks earlier, Ambassador and Health Minister Jeon 
launched the 3 1/2-year old ITRC as an independent 
foundation.  The ITRC, based in Masan, South Korea, brings 
together researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of 
Health (NIH) and the Korean Ministry of Health, Welfare and 
Family Affairs (MHWFA) to discover new medical treatments for 
the novel strains of Multi-Drug Resistant TB (MDR-TB) and 
Extensively Drug Resistant TB (XDR-TB) that are emerging 
worldwide.  While the incidence of tuberculosis in South 
Korea has dropped to less than one tenth of its 1975 level, 
MDR- and XDR-TB have gained a foothold in the South and 
reportedly are reaching alarming rates in North Korea.  Since 
the research performed at the ITRC could benefit tuberculosis 
patients not only in North and South Korea, but around the 
world, this joint effort is an example of the U.S.-Korea 
partnership transcending the Korean Peninsula and engaging in 
issues of global concern.  End summary. 
 
Ambassador Highlights USG Commitment on World TB Day 
--------------------- ------------------------------ 
¶3.  On March 24, Ambassador joined with Health Minister Jeon 
Jae-hee in Korea's official World TB Day event -- a 
commemoration of the work done by the Korea National 
Tuberculosis Association (KNTA).  The Ambassador was the only 
foreign diplomat invited to participate in the event. 
 
¶4.  The KNTA was established in 1953 with the goal of 
advancing the research and study of tuberculosis and of 
eradicating tuberculosis in Korea.  It is well-known for its 
fund-raising and public awareness program through the annual 
sale of Christmas Seals and for its mobile clinics, equipped 
with X-ray machines, to provide medical exams to people in 
rural areas and the poorer areas of urban communities.  It 
also collaborates with the Korean MHWFA in conducting 
clinical prevalence surveys and public educational projects. 
 
¶5.  In her remarks for the occasion, made in Korean, 
Ambassador Stephens highlighted the U.S. and Korea's long 
history in working together to combat tuberculosis.  She 
emphasized the importance of the research conducted at the 
ITRC and highlighted other tuberculosis programs, such as the 
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, that the 
USG supports worldwide.  The Ambassador recalled that she saw 
first-hand the suffering caused by tuberculosis when she came 
to Korea as a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1975.  She remembered 
that many Peace Corps volunteers worked with KNTA staff to 
help TB patients in rural clinics.  She concluded that our 
joint efforts in health - from the early rural health worker 
Peace Corps days to the modern joint research for new 
medicines to combat drug resistant tuberculosis ) are an 
example of how the U.S.-Korea partnership has evolved from 
being focused on the Peninsula to becoming a force for change 
and development around the world. 
 
Bilateral Research Partnership Combating MDR- and XDR-TB 
------------------------- ------------------------------ 
¶6.  Three weeks earlier, on March 2, Ambassador and Health 
Minister Jeon launched the three-year old U.S.-Korea ITRC as 
an independent foundation at a ceremony in Seoul.  Previously 
a program under the KNTA, the reorganization of the ITRC as 
an independent entity is a significant vote of confidence 
from the Korean MHWFA.  The ITRC, a joint U.S. NIH-Korean 
MHWFA undertaking, is the most significant collaborative 
health project the U.S. implements with Korea. 
 
¶7.  The Center was established in 2005 with facilities 
annexed to the Masan National Tuberculosis Hospital, located 
about 40 km west of Busan.  The Center is equally funded, USD 
one million annually each, by the U.S. NIH and the Korean 
MHWFA.  Doctors and technologists from the NIH visit 
throughout the year in both a management and technical 
capacity. The primary mission of the ITRC is the development 
 
SEOUL 00000542  002 OF 002 
 
 
of new anti-tuberculosis medicines, especially to treat MDR- 
and XTR-TB.  It also carries out basic clinical research on 
how MDR- and XDR-TB develop, techniques for diagnosis, 
training and education for TB workers, and collaboration and 
information-sharing with other international TB research 
centers.  (Note: Although MDR-TB has been around a number of 
years, XDR-TB, which has a higher mortality rate, is a more 
recent phenomenon, gaining attention in 2006 when 52 of 53 
people in an outbreak in South Africa died within a month of 
contracting the disease.  End note) 
 
¶8.  Although the incidence of tuberculosis in South Korea has 
fallen from approximately 3 percent in 1975 to less than 0.3 
percent today, it still has one of the highest rates of TB 
infections among developed countries.  Moreover, of the 
35,000 new cases of TB seen in South Korea each year, 
approximately 5000 of them are MDR- or XDR-TB.  Masan 
Hospital is the national referral center for TB treatment 
failures in South Korea and therefore is unique in having the 
largest population of in-patient MDR-TB victims anywhere in 
the world.  The hospital admits approximately 1000 TB 
patients in each year, and more than half of these carry 
MDR-TB.  In addition, more than 5000 TB out-patients visit 
the hospital every year.  With modern research facilities 
co-located with such a large population of MDR- and XDR-TB 
patients, the ITRC is well situated to carry out its cutting 
edge research. 
 
¶9.  Research to develop treatment for MDR- and XDR-TB takes 
place at numerous facilities throughout the world, but 
scientists have been frustrated at the lack of progress in 
finding new, effective medicines.  In February of this year, 
however, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of 
Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York announced a 
promising new treatment for MDR-TB.  Working in collaboration 
with NIH scientists associated with the ITRC and using 
bacterial strains obtained from the ITRC in Korea, they found 
that two existing drugs used in combination were effective 
against 13 different bacterial isolates of XDR-TB.  The two 
drugs are meropenem (also called MERREM I.V., produced by 
AstraZeneca) and clavulinic acid (produced by GlaxoSmithKline 
in combination with amoxicillin under the name Augmentin). 
The drug combination could become the first new class of 
compounds introduced in the chemotherapy of TB in 40 years 
and the first effective treatment for MDR- and XDR-TB ever. 
But so far, the medicines have been tested in laboratory 
cultures only.  Clinical trials involving MDR- and XTR- 
patients are necessary.  NIH plans to undertake the clinical 
trails at the ITRC in cooperation with Masan Hospital. 
 
¶10.  Successful development of new treatments for MDR- and 
XDR-TB will benefit the world community, but will have a 
particular impact in North Korea.  In its 2008 
Anti-Tuberculosis Drug Resistance in the World Report, WHO 
reported that 6.8 percent of all TB infections in North Korea 
are MDR-TB.  But official statistics from North Korea are 
unreliable.  The Eugene Bell Foundation, a non-governmental 
humanitarian organization registered in South Korea, has been 
delivering medication, diagnostic equipment, and supplies to 
treat tuberculosis in North Korea since 1997.  The Foundation 
in 2007 estimated that as many as 30 percent of all TB 
patients in North Korea may be infected with MDR-TB. 
 
¶11.  In her remarks congratulating the ITRC,  Ambassador 
called it a center of excellence bringing together the 
combined weight of the science and technology of the United 
States and Korea to confront a 21st century problem of global 
concern.  Collaborative projects like this, she said, will 
help propel our bilateral relationship to reach its full 
potential. 
 
¶12.  The Embassy's website (http://seoul.usembassy.gov/) and 
the Ambassador's blog in English and Korean 
(http://cafe.daum.net/usembassy) cover these activities and 
have elicited positive reaction. 
STEPHENS