EGYPT CONFERENCE ON PANDEMIC/AVIAN FLU - HEALTH DG

UNCLAS ROME 001210 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TBIO KFLU AORC EAGR EAID PREL IT SUBJECT: EGYPT CONFERENCE ON PANDEMIC/AVIAN FLU - HEALTH DG MARABELLI TO ATTEND, NEW AID ANNOUNCEMENT UNLIKELY Ref: State 92335 ¶1. (U) On September 4, Post delivered reftel demarche to Welfare/Health Ministry (MOH) International Affairs officer Dr. Gaetano Guglielmi, and MOH Prevention and Infectious Disease expert Dr. Maria Grazia Pompa. Post Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) office also delivered reftel points to MOH Veterinary Department Director Dr. Romano Marabelli and Agriculture Ministry Diplomatic Advisor Giorgio Starace. On 19 September, Starace noted that DG Marabelli's department would take the lead on the issue. On 22 September, the MOH informed Post that MOH Department Head for Public Veterinary Health, Nutrition and Food Safety Dr. Romano Marabelli will represent Italy at the IPAPI meeting in Egypt. ¶2. (SBU) Post also delivered reftel points to Counselor Mauro Massoni, chief of development assistance for multilateral organizations within the Foreign Ministry (MFA) on September 23. Couns. Massoni told ECONOFF that a new pledge of aid to fight pandemic/avian flu was unlikely as overall Italian assistance in 2009 will drop by sixty percent relative to 2008. He also said that the GOI would likely focus its future health efforts on polio eradication rather than avian flu, which he said was no longer receiving the same level of public attention as in recent years. Spogli