VZCZCXRO6988
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDF RUEHDH RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHMA RUEHPB
RUEHPOD RUEHSL RUEHTM RUEHTRO
DE RUEHRL #0754 1741532
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 231532Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4415
INFO RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 9953
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 0353
RUEHFT/AMCONSUL FRANKFURT 8056
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE USD FAS WASHINGTON DC 0121
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0765
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1484

UNCLAS BERLIN 000754 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/CE PETER SCHROEDER 
STATE FOR OES/IHB 
STATE FOR AID/GH/HIDN 
USDA PASS TO APHIS 
HHS PASS TO CDC 
HHS FOR OGHA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TBIO KFLU ECON PREL SOCI CASC EAGR MX GM
SUBJECT: GERMANY H1N1 FLU UPDATE: 301 CONFIRMED CASES 
 
REF:  A) Berlin 747, B) Berlin 744 and previous. 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The number of H1N1 cases in Germany rose to 
301 on June 23, as twenty-three new infections were 
confirmed.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) On June 23, the National Reference Center for 
Influenza at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) announced in its 
press briefing 23 new laboratory-confirmed cases of H1N1 for 
Germany.  This increases the total number of confirmed cases 
in Germany to 301 (Refs A, B and previous).  The new cases 
were distributed among the federal states as follows: North 
Rhine-Westphalia (13), Rhineland-Palatine (2), Baden- 
Wuerttemberg (2), Bavaria (5), Saxony (1), Hesse (1) and 
Lower-Saxony (-1). 
 
 
Infections in North Rhine-Westphalia continuo to Increase 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶3. (SBU) Thirteen of the 23 newly confirmed cases reported 
today occurred in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).  NRW remains 
the state showing the highest number of infections among all 
the German states with 146 confirmed cases, followed by 
Bavaria (44 cases) and Baden-Wuerttemberg (33 cases).  The 
Federal State of Saarland remains the only state without 
confirmed virus cases.  The number of confirmed infections 
resulting from domestic transmission of the virus now sits at 
¶157. 
 
 
More Germans to be infected shortly 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) German media reports indicate that German virologists 
expect the virus to spread further, supporting statements made 
by WHO earlier this week which warned that 1/3 of all Germans 
could be infected with the new virus by this fall.  Experts 
reportedly cautioned that the actual number of infections in 
Germany could be ten times as high as the confirmed figure due 
to the mildness of the virus' symptoms, which makes it hard to 
recognize an infection in cases exhibiting only light or no 
symptoms. 
 
¶5. (SBU) In the past two months, two pharmaceutical 
laboratories in Germany, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals in 
Dresden (Saxony) und Novartis in Marburg (Hesse), have been 
working on developing a vaccine for the new virus.   According 
to the media, production of the vaccines will likely not take 
place this year, as both institutes will run their clinical 
studies on the vaccines until December of this year.  If the 
virus mutates during this time, the vaccine could be delayed 
even further. 
 
 
KOENIG