JUNE 8 NIGERIA AVIAN FLU UPDATE -- GON LOSES FOCUS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ABUJA 001412 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS USDA FOR FAS/OA, FAS/DLP, FAS/ICD AND FAS/ITP USDA FOR APHIS USDA FOR WAYNE MOLSTAD/OSEC E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TBIO KFLU EAID AMED EAGR NI AVIANFLU SUBJECT: JUNE 8 NIGERIA AVIAN FLU UPDATE -- GON LOSES FOCUS REF: ABUJA 1387 ABUJA 00001412 001.2 OF 003 ¶1. (SBU) Summary. The GON's high-level meetings on AI have declined to negligible levels although are set to increase. The ministers of health, agriculture, and information have met once in 10 weeks, and there are considerable tensions between the Ministries of Health and Agriculture. The thrice-weekly meeting of the three ministries' technical experts and foreign donors last week was reduced to one per week. The low number of meetings has limited foreign donors' opportunities to try to influence and assist the GON's efforts against AI. The high-level AI Steering Committee has invited all donors to a meeting June 14, however. MOA veterinarians have demanded fees from poultry farmers for some AI-related services. The French veterinarian assigned to the MOA resigned out of frustration with the GON's inaction against AI. The U.S. Mission and foreign donors met June 5 with the health minister, who pledged to reinvigorate Nigeria's efforts. Western health specialists increasingly believe that AI probably has killed some Nigerians and that only the severe weakness of the country's disease-surveillance system precludes confirmation. End summary. GON Meetings on the Avian Flu Decrease -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The Government of Nigeria's (GON) high-level meetings on the avian influenza (AI) have declined to negligible levels although they are set to increase. The country's AI Interministerial Committee, composed of the ministers of health, agriculture, and information as well as foreign donors, has met once in 10 weeks, in part because of the health minister's frequent foreign travel -- although the health minister is Nigeria's designated lead official on AI and chairman of the Interministerial Committee. Nigeria's AI Technical Committee, comprised of the three ministries' technical experts and foreign donors, last week decreased its thrice-weekly meetings to one per week. Weeks after its move to a new location, the GON's AI Crisis Management Center still does not have a working telephone number. The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) often does not attend the Technical Committee meetings, reflecting the considerable tensions with the Ministry of Health, especially over procedures for releasing information on AI outbreaks. The low number of meetings has limited foreign donors' opportunities to influence and assist the GON's efforts against AI. The high-level AI Steering Committee has invited all donors to a meeting on June 14, however, which will allow a broader discussion of concerns. The Charge will head the U.S. group attending the meeting. ¶3. (SBU) According to an official with the UK's Department for International Development (DFID),the health minister believed the AI Crisis Management Center's move from the Presidential Villa reflected the government's downgrading of AI's importance. The DFID official said May 31 that Nigeria had received enough money to use against AI but was not employing this properly. (Comment: Nigeria has not spent any of the $12.2 million World Bank AI line of credit available, according to the Bank, since at least March 20. End comment.) The DFID official said the health minister acknowledged "nothing gets done" while the minister was out of the country. The UK official urged foreign donors to bear in mind the pressures on the health minister to address various human diseases simultaneously. Officials charge farmers for some AI veterinary services -------------- -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Reports indicate that MOA veterinarians have demanded fees from poultry farmers for some AI-related services. This has occurred at least partially because at the state level, veterinary field officers do not have the funds to carry out detection or disposal activities. A GON official said on May 22 that a Kano poultry farmer with infected birds did not want to ask for the government's assistance because she was charged for H5N1 testing, as well as for dead birds' removal. A UN Food and Agriculture ABUJA 00001412 002.2 OF 003 Organization (FAO) official said on June 6 that the Kano farmer was not charged for H5N1 testing but did have to provide laborers to remove the birds. An FAO official said May 23 that poultry farmers in Bauchi State had to pay the cost of laborers' digging pits to bury dead birds -- after already having suffered the loss of their birds. International donors are highly concerned that these fees discourage poultry farmers from reporting suspected outbreaks of AI. ¶5. (U) Neither the GON nor Nigerian state governments have made a formal request to foreign donors for help in covering the cost of AI field operations. An FAO official said the MOA should be able to fund the cost of AI fieldwork because the ministry has received donor aid for this purpose. PACE veterinarian resigns in frustration -------------- ¶6. (SBU) An FAO official and the French Government/European Union veterinarian assigned to the MOA under the ministry's Pan-African Program for the Control of Epizootics (PACE) component said May 23 that Nigeria had in Abuja a "large number" of sets of personal protective equipment still not shipped to the field. The PACE veterinarian left Nigeria two weeks ago out of frustration with the GON's inaction against AI, though his contract called for him to serve at the MOA until November. Shortly before the veterinarian's departure, he asserted only two people at the MOA "know what is going on" with AI. Health minister, foreign donors meet June 5 -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Minister of Health Eyitayo Lambo met on June 5 with the USAID/Abuja mission director, the chief of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)/Abuja, and representatives of the World Bank, the World Health Organization, the FAO, the UN Children's Fund, the UN Development Program, and DFID. The foreign donors urged the health minister to reenergize the GON's AI efforts and reviewed with him the joint UN-CDC report "Avian Influenza in Nigeria." The report, issued on April 20, examined the first three months of AI in Nigeria and made recommendations for combating AI in the next three months -- but Lambo read the report only recently. The health minister expressed support for the report's recommendations, acknowledged the GON's response to AI had been sluggish, and pledged to reinvigorate Nigeria's efforts. He said he would meet May 14 with the ministers of agriculture and information, and would do so weekly. (Comment: The health minister's pledge of weekly meetings may be too ambitious because of demands on his time, and because the Ministries of Information and especially Agriculture may not cooperate in holding weekly meetings. End comment.) ¶8. (SBU) The donors said Nigeria's AI efforts need to be carried out predominantly at the state level to be effective. The DFID representative detailed the need for a strong disease-surveillance system, an improved public- information campaign, and for a prompt compensation plan for poultry farmers. The health minister agreed to reexamine the government's policy on compensation. The World Bank and Lambo expressed some disagreement over the Bank's funding to combat AI. The Bank's representative said the GON still needed to provide a detailed plan for using this money, while Lambo said the bank continually attached to these funds additional requirements for information. The two sides agreed the bank would release to Nigeria $12.2 million on June 11 and a $50 million credit in the following week. AI likely has killed Nigerians -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Western health specialists serving in Nigeria increasingly believe that AI probably has resulted in the deaths of some Nigerians -- and that only the severe weakness of the country's disease-surveillance system ABUJA 00001412 003.2 OF 003 precludes the identification and confirmation of these deaths. The U.S. Mission Abuja agrees that AI more likely than not has exacted a human toll in Nigeria. Comment -------------- ¶10. (SBU) It is uncertain whether the health minister will succeed in refocusing the GON against the avian flu. The assurances by Lambo are similar to those that he and other ministers have given foreign donors since AI was diagnosed in Nigeria in February. The health minister also faces other major priorities, including responding to significant international criticism of Nigeria over polio's resurgence and the loss of Global Fund grants for AIDS, Malaria and TB. Four months after the avian flu was diagnosed in Nigeria, elements of the GON are deciding issues and strategies that should have been resolved months ago. Relations between the Ministries of Health and Agriculture are poor, and despite the efforts of the United Nations/Abuja and foreign donors, the GON has lost its momentum against AI. The UN organizations and foreign donors regularly urge more action from the GON, but not surprisingly, their appeals and efforts cannot compel action. The GON's political will is unfocused, with institutional weaknesses extending far down government organizations and ministries. Nonetheless, it appears donor concerns are beginning to sink in, and next week's Steering Committee meeting will provide another opportunity for donors to reemphasize the continuing importance of addressing AI. FUREY