Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06ABUJA1412
2006-06-08 13:22:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Abuja
Cable title:  

JUNE 8 NIGERIA AVIAN FLU UPDATE -- GON LOSES FOCUS

Tags:  TBIO KFLU EAID AMED EAGR NI AVIANFLU 
pdf how-to read a cable
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PP RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMA RUEHMR RUEHPA
DE RUEHUJA #1412/01 1591322
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 081322Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY ABUJA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5969
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHDC
RHFMISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUEHRN/USMISSION UN ROME 0005
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC//USDP/ASD-HD//
RUEHPH/CDC ATLANTA GA
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHDC
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

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