BOSNIA: SMALLPOX DEMARCHE DELIVERED

UNCLAS SARAJEVO 001022 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR D (SMITH),P (BAME),EUR (DICARLO),EUR/SCE (ENGLISH, FOOKS, MITCHELL, SAINZ),OES/IHA, NSC FOR BRAUN, OSD FOR FLORY, USNIC FOR WEBER AND GREGORIAN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AORC PREL TBIO WHO BK SUBJECT: BOSNIA: SMALLPOX DEMARCHE DELIVERED REF: SECSTATE 71569 ¶1. On May 5 and 9, Post delivered points in reftel to Ambassador Nedzad Hadzimusic, Head of the Department of Multilateral Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA),and to Dr. Zlatko Puvacic, Head of the Department of Epidemiology at the Federation Institute of Public Health. The demarche will also be delivered to the Minister of Health in the Republika Srpska (RS). (Note: Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) does not have a state-level Ministry of Health.) Hadzimusic indicated that BiH had not yet decided whether it would be represented at the May 22-29 World Health Assembly meeting by the MFA, public health experts or both. He thanked us for the points and promised to take them under consideration. ¶2. Dr. Puvacic is BiH's preeminent expert on the smallpox virus, and was part of the expert team working on the last smallpox outbreak in the former Yugoslavia, in Kosovo in ¶1969. He has also conducted research on the variola virus. He fully agreed on the need to preserve the live virus stocks and continue research, and indicated that he would share his views with the MFA. MCELHANEY