Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07SANTODOMINGO508
2007-03-08 18:07:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Santo Domingo
Cable title:  

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: THE DEVELOPMENT AND EXERCISING

Tags:  TBIO KFLU KSTH DR 
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VZCZCXYZ0047
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDG #0508 0671807
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 081807Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7615
UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000508 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: TBIO KFLU KSTH DR
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: THE DEVELOPMENT AND EXERCISING
OF AVIAN AND PANDEMIC RESPONSE PLANS

REF: STATE 22992

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000508

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: TBIO KFLU KSTH DR
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: THE DEVELOPMENT AND EXERCISING
OF AVIAN AND PANDEMIC RESPONSE PLANS

REF: STATE 22992


1. (SBU) Summary. Avian influenza (AI) preparedness is a
concern for the Dominican Republic. According to Embassy
sources, the country has conducted very few AI response
exercises. Currently only the Ministry of Agriculture has
completed its response plan and has sponsored exercises,
focused mainly on responding to animal outbreaks. To date,
no preparedness exercises have been conducted to evaluate the
Dominican response to a pathogenic H5N1 infecting a human in
the Dominican Republic, without Human-to-Human (H-2-H)
transmission, or a sustained H-2-H pathogenic H5N1
transmission in the Dominican Republic. End Summary.


2. (U) The country has a national Influenza Commission that
includes the Ministries of Health, Agriculture, Education and
Tourism, Civil Defense and the private sector. The person in
charge of coordinating this commission is Dr. Elizabeth
Gomez, Director of the Epidemiology Department at the
Ministry of Health and head of a Pan American Health
Organization (PAHO) and a Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
financed project.


3. (U) At the end of October 2006, health and agriculture
officers from Haiti and Central America conducted an
emergency preparedness seminar hosted by the Dominican
Ministry of Agriculture. This seminar included bio-security
plans for large scale poultry farms and practical sessions on
depopulation and disinfection given by APHIS officials.


4. (U) The Ministry of Health, with the support of PAHO and
the CDC, started a one-year project to strengthen the
capacity of a rapid reply to pandemic and avian influenza in
the Dominican Republic. In November 2006, a CDC team based
in Guatemala visited the Dominican Republic to initiate the
project to strengthen the capacity for the detection,
surveillance, and rapid response to the avian influenza.
This program, working in coordination with PAHO, has hired
one epidemiologist who is currently completing the influenza
preparedness plan and its protocols for the Dominican
Republic. A meeting to be held this month in Costa Rica
(March 9) will discuss the protocols with their Central
American colleagues. The plan is expected to be completed in
April. In May 2007 a drill will be held to test the country's
avian influenza preparedness; Dominican personnel trained in
November 2006 in Guatemala are expected to be training local
leaders in preparation for this drill.


5. (U) USAID/Washington holds monthly teleconferences with
all the countries it supports in the Latin America and
Caribbean (LAC) region to share information, get technical
updates, report on particular situations, and maintain a
coordination mechanism for surveillance and rapid regional
response in case of an outbreak or epidemic. A website has
been set up for information sharing. The contact person in
USAID/Washington for this LAC teleconference is Peg Marshal.


6. (U) PAHO is very active in the Dominican Republic and has
trained its technicians in diagnostic techniques for
influenza viruses in humans. Additionally, the Japanese
government has created the "Center for Medical Education and
Friendship for Japanese and Dominicans" (CEMA DOJA). It has
the potential to be a very robust infectious disease
surveillance center, but lacks the needed reagents to sustain
surveillance measures. The Ministry of Agriculture has
another laboratory prepared to work with animal cases.


7. (U) This report and extensive other material can be
consulted on our SIPRNET site,
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo/
HERTELL